To live would be an awfully big adventure
by Ailidh
Summary: The Black Pearl encounters a big storm that deposits them on an island which they can't seem to leave. There, they will find out the truth about Jack Sparrow and themselves.
1. Chapter 1

Disclamer: Nothing is mine. I don't own anything.

I hope that everyone enjoys my story. Have a great time reading.

**To live would be an awfully big adventure.**

The sun sat low over the horizon and the captain of the vessel never once looked away from the magnificent sight as he expertly guided his across the open sea. The wind played happily with his hair, gently caressing his face. Everything was perfect. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Elizabeth Turner whispering something to her beloved husband as they both stood by a railing overlooking the colorful horizon.

The captain grinned as he remembered how they had come to be here. The newlyweds had decided, shortly after their much awaited for marriage, that they were not ready to give up and live a peaceful life just yet. They needed more excitement, more adventure in order to feel as having accomplished living life to the fullest. Something that their captain could fully understand and fully empathize with; the glorious feeling of being alive while out in the open seas, the power that it gave someone. It was the only way that he knew how to escape and he gladly shared his freedom, his ship with his friends.

The captain had visited them many times, during their year and a half engagement during which the couple had grown to almost despise the little town of Port Royal where all anyone was concerned about was etiquette and propriety. It was where the daughter of the governor and a blacksmith, no matter how good could not possibly get married to each other. Regardless of the fact that said daughter had been kidnapped by pirates and spent a whole night on an island with one, mere days before the engagement was announced. Her father had taken great precautions that that little piece of news should not get out so the fact that Elizabeth Swann getting ready to marry Will Turner was still the top piece of gossip and still wrong.

So it had been not surprisingly, Elizabeth's idea to join the join some pirates and leave the small town behind. Unfortunately, their escape, which took place mere months after the wedding, had been silent and quick. Will and Elizabeth had just been waiting calmly, all their necessary bags packed and ready, the next time, their pirate captain friend popped in for a visit. No doubt Governor Swann would tell the people that the couple had just simply gone on a belated honeymoon or had moved to England and ruin a perfectly good scandal. Nevertheless, all the involved parties could care less about Port Royal just then as they were sailing away into the horizon full speed ahead, no regrets.

"Jack?" Captain Jack Sparrow turned around and grinned broadly at his best friend, Will Turner, who had come up to stand beside him at the helm. "Elizabeth says that the supper is ready. She was just down there, supervising the cooking and told me to tell you that she is actually impressed. It really isn't as dirty as she expected." Will told him. "Would you like to come down to eat with us?"

Jack tilted his head to the side as he thought about the question. Eating with his friends would have been a nice change from eating with his loud, rowdy crew, but he couldn't bear to leave the helm of his beloved ship for too long. Not now that he had finally gotten her back after ten long years of waiting, wishing and hoping to be reunited with her again. Ten long years of utter agony.

"No, just bring me somethin' one you're all done." He finally told Will and turned back to the horizon. "Got any preferences?"

"Pardon?" Will looked confused. There had been days on end when Jack Sparrow had come to visit Elizabeth and him, when he rarely understood a single word of what the pirate captain was saying. Sure they seemed to talk the same language but somehow, the way the other stringed his world together, seemed completely foreign to him.

"Where we travel." His friend clarified. "You or you lass got any places you've always wanted to go and visit or revisit? We don't just loot ships you know. Got to stop for supplies somewhere. There is a big world out there and we could go anywhere we want. So where will it be?" Will Turner shrugged. "I'll go wherever you go Captain."

Neither man missed his slight enunciation of the word captain. He was acknowledging Jack's rightful title, but more then that, he was inserting himself into his crew. He was letting Jack know that he trusted him completely with his life and that of his wife, trusted him to keep him and his family safe regardless of the fact that Jack was supposed to be a feared, ruthless pirate.

"Ask that wife of yours. She's the adventurous one in your family I think." Jack grinned. "And go eat something before you keel over on me, savvy?" Will knew that he was dismissed. He could tell that his Captain wanted some alone time with his ship and he wasn't one to intrude.

Yet another way that he was similar to his father, Jack thought. Will's father, Bootstrap Bill Turner had known Jack Sparrow even before he had become captain of his Pearl, almost before he became known to the world as Jack Sparrow. Shaking his head, Jack dispelled the thoughts gathering in his head. He didn't want to think about the time before… or the time after… or really any time at all, he decided with a slight chuckle. What he wanted was to relax, clear his mind of all thoughts and just be one with his Pearl. The best way to do that was to stand where he stood now, his hands on the wheel, his gase resting lightly on the blue and green water in front of him… lightly pushing away any thought that thought it important to distract him…

"Jack? Captain, I brought you some food. Elizabeth said that it was good so it must be. The girl's used to good things. Here." Anamaria, Captain Jack Sparrow's first mate, thrust a bowl a food at him and then leaned back against the railing with her own bowl and began eating her own portion looking up periodically as though to check that her captain and friend was also eating. She somehow also knew that he probably wouldn't eat by himself, without the company of other people around him unless he chose to force himself to. The Captain enjoyed being with people, enjoyed talking to them, interacting with them and Anamaria was perfectly content to eat outside.

They ate in the silence that could only blossom between two people who were completely comfortable with each other and who trusted one another implicitly. Anamaria knew what she was getting herself into when she had taken on the job of first mate to the eccentric pirate captain. She had seen first hand what Barbossa's treachery had done to him and had known how hard the job would be. But for some reason that even Anamaria herself could not understand, she had wanted to be the one to break all the old prejudices, to serve her captain with her life, to show him that he could still trust, that she if no one else would never betray him. The fact that he still owed her a boat was carefully forgotten. She would never ask for it and hopefully he wouldn't either. Maybe she'd tell him sometime, what this job meant to her but for now, they both let sleeping dogs lie.

She left when he finished and took his bowl back to the galley with her and Jack got back to relaxing and clearing his mind once more. Happy and full, it was amazingly easy this time.

He closed his eyes and could almost see the ocean stretched out in front of him, could see it the way his ship might see it. He could feel the water gliding across his hull, warm and gentle, excepting him in an embrace; almost helping him move towards his destination instead of hindering his progress. He could feel the sun, attracted to his black sails sending them it's love, the wind playfully toying with the flag, the almost unfelt vibrations that the fish made in the water as they swerved to avoid collisions. The dolphins came at his call and played alongside, keeping up perfectly with the speed.

But something had changed in the feeling of the way he glided on the water. Jack had done this once or twice before, this strange merging of human and ship. He had discovered it once while guiding his ship half asleep and it had been easier then to slip into this state then when he was completely awake, but he could still tell that something was now different. They were going somewhere. He hadn't given anyone any coordinates, hadn't even planned himself where to go yet. He had just been moving towards the horizon, always on the lookout for ships to loot of coarse; yet the Pearl acted as though they had a destination in mind, as thought they had somewhere to go and it was time to go there.

Jack Sparrow's eyes flew open in shock, ripping his mind from its tranquil state and sending him reeling in an aftershock. What did that mean, whey had he even thought it? Where was it that he was supposed to go and why did his ship know it before he did? It was strange and disconcerting and Jack couldn't help but feel as though he was supposed to know something that he had forgotten.

I hope that everyone enjoyed the first chapter of that will hopefuly become a great story. Please, please, please review and tell me what you think. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story. It makes me feel so special and I'm so happy that people liked it.

**RaMeryt** – Thank you for pointing that out. I think that Elizabeth was just supervising because she wanted to see what they were going to eat and make sure it was edible. So I don't think she was cooking. Only watching. I should have clarified that. Also thank you for taking the time to review and being first as well!

**snufflesgal** – Thank you! I was trying to make it long because I myself don't really like reading short chapters. I always want to know what happens and get all involved with the story. I'm so happy that I was able to do that and that you noticed.

**Blackmagic** – I'm glad you enjoyed. Hope that you enjoy the rest as well.

Something had awoken him. For a few moments Jack Sparrow had no idea where he was and why he had awoken so abruptly. He felt the Black Pearl calmly rolling with the waves, heard the noise above on deck where his crew went about doing their jobs, heard also the howling wind rattling the sails… wait, the howling wind! Jack jumped from the bed and struggled to don his clothes as quickly as possible. The door wouldn't open at first as though it was held closed by the wind and when he finally did get it open, Jack heard that the noise the wind was making was even louder then what he had heard in his cabin.

"What's going on?" he cried out to Anamaria who it seemed had been standing by his door, ready to wake him up.

"I don't know." She yelled back, struggling to be heard above the sound of sails flapping. "The wind came out of nowhere. It's strange, Captain, not natural. It's not effectin' the waves either." She paused as Jack looked out into the water and saw what she meant. The ocean was silent and peaceful as though on calm day and the small rolling waves gave no indication that a strong wind, one that seemed to be able to rival a hurricane was anywhere in the vicinity. "I think it has a destination, it's blowing us towards somewhere." Anamaria paused again as if unsure if to say more would make her sound crazy. "I think it changed course twice, Captain." The second mate finally confided in a puzzled tone. She had been standing by the wheel, checking their progress on the compass and she had seen the changes herself.

Quite suddenly, Jack remembered that feeling that he had had just a few hours past, the one that told him that the Pearl was heading somewhere, that it had a destination n mind he was not yet privy to. Well it seemed that they were not moving fast enough. The wind would hurry them to their destination. This entire situation wasn't hurting his ship or his crew as far as Jack Sparrow could tell and if this wasn't something human and tangible that he could fight. Something really wanted him to get somewhere and as there looked to be no danger Captain Jack Sparrow decided that there was nothing to do but wait it out.

"It's alright." He told his first mate. "Tell the crew to get themselves down below or tie themselves to something so the wind doesn' blow them overboard. I've a feeling it's not going to let up anytime soon but I don't think that the wind will hurt us. Go see to the crew Anamaria and I'll stay with the ship."

Anamaria looked just about ready to argue but Captain Jack Sparrow raised his hand and motioned for her to go. He couldn't really explain to her why it was ok and they were safe and that there was nothing to worry about because he didn't understand it himself. All he knew where the feelings he picked up out of nowhere. The anticipation of his ship as she came close to her destination as though she was happy to be taking him places all over the world, and now that he was used to it, the caresses of the wind that almost carried them to this new location. He could tell that it wished them no harm but there was no easy way to explain it to anyone else, especially in the racket that this evidently helpful wind was producing.

Gibbs, who had been at the wheel, muttered something about unnatural winds and the bed luck associated with having that many women on board a ship but Jack paid him no mind. Gibbs always though that everything was bad luck so Jack clapped him on his shoulder and told him calmly that everything was going to be alright and taking a flask of beer out of the man's own pocket, offered it to him to go relax. The still muttering man obliged his captain.

The wind had been blowing for five hours. Captain Jack Sparrow had stood at the helm the entire time, supervising the passage through the ocean. There was nothing in sight and the wind showed no signs of abating. It was day now and the sun shone brightly in a clear sky. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes and concentrated on the wind blowing softly on his face, he could just imagine a small tropical island in their destination.

Even though Jack had no idea as to how long their journey would last, he wasn't worried yet. There hadn't been any change in their speed or in the overall weather at all since they started out except for a few subtle changes in course and that consistency had to be a good thing. What was strange though was the way the wind seemed familiar to him and that the way Jack kept seeing the island was from above as though he was a bird in the air and that it seemed familiar to him. It was like coming home when he knew for certain that he had never been to the island before.

The thing that was completely out of the ordinary though, was that Jack had taken out a map after a while, wanting to know where they were and to try at least to guess where they were going. According to two good maps of the area they were supposed to be in, calculating the changes made, they should have hit an island or two in their path already but there was nothing out there but the horizon.

On the other hand, this wasn't a normal wind that they were dealing with and after dealing with the cursed gold and undead skeletal pirates, Jack liked to think that nothing would surprise him anymore. What he wouldn't do though was tell his crew. They had no reason or need to know, now that they couldn't do anything at all about their predicament.

Hands resting lightly on the wheel, Jack Sparrow wondered where Will was. He had seen him come up briefly some two hours ago, with his lovely wife in tow. They had taken a short walk around the ship with almost comically concerned, worried expressions, exchanged a few words with Jack himself and then escaped back into their room. Most of the crew had taking his command to heart and locked themselves down in the sleeping quarters for there was not much work to do. The wind was doing all of the work and they were grateful for at least that.

Captain Jack Sparrow looked up just in time to see the thick fog they were about to enter. He squinted at it, trying to decide just how dangerous and unnatural it was and then reached out a hand to touch it as he marveled at the thickness of it.

Then quite suddenly and abruptly, the wind stopped and the one that took over was a calm natural one. The noise was gone and there was almost silence in place of what was before.

"Have we stopped?" Will broke the silence, coming up beside Jack. He had run up onto the helm when the noise of the wind had stopped, curious to see where they were.

"Yes." Captain Jack Sparrow drawled slowly, having no idea of that could mean. They were still completely shrouded in fog and could see nothing up ahead. Still there was that strange feeling of knowing exactly where he was and that odd vision of the island.

As though reading his thoughts, the fog slowly parted (instead of dissolving, Jack noted somewhat calmly) and Jack found himself staring into a cove belonging to a beautiful island. The same tropical island that he had seen in his visions. The same island that was covered with lush green life, ready and welcoming for the Black Pearl to join. Another playful wind picked up and slowly started to push them towards their destination. They had arrived.

**Author's note** – I just want to clarify something here because I don't want to deceive anyone.This story will be a crossover between Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan. The crossover will be very smooth, not the 'these characters meet those' type of crossover but the 'these characters are those'. I have a really great story (almost) planned out and I think (and hope) that it will turn out really good. I really really really hope that all of you will continue to read this and enjoy it. Thank you for reading so far and please please continue reading and please review and tell me what you think so far and what you think of my idea.


	3. Chapter 3

Ok. so I got no reviews for the last chapter. I really hope that people are still reading this. Thank you so much to pirateoftheringsfor adding my story to favourites and to snufflesgalfor adding this story to alerts. I'm glad somebody likes this idea of mine.

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They ended up just four in the lifeboat, going ashore last. Anamaria, Will, Elizabeth and Jack. No one spoke as they came closer and closer to the island until Will sat back with a slightly puzzled expression on his face.

"It reminds me of a dream I had once." Will said softly. "I don't remember all of it, and it seems so strange now, but when I was a child, I dreamed that I was on an island just like this one. In this dream, I lived there, on this island with a group of other boys and we… we had - adventures. That's about as well as I can explain it. I think that we could fly, and there were pirates that we fought with all the time. The one that was the leader… I cannot recall his name…"

"Peter Pan." Anamaria said quietly. "Was his name Peter Pan? I had the same dream." Her voice reflected her utter shock. "I must have been ten or eleven then. How is this possible to have the same dream? Do you remember what you called yourself there?"

"Anamaria? There was only one girl there that I remember quite clearly. She looked nothing like you." Will Turner informed the first mate of the Black Pearl who smiled and nodded.

"It was what I wanted myself to look like, how people would have excepted me, liked me. The dream was my fantasy. I kept on going back there night after night and then I had to leave. I knew that I couldn't stay forever." She explained.

"Wendy." Will exclaimed while the other two sat by quietly and watched the two most unlikely people to ever find something in common, excitedly reminisce. "And you brought everyone back with you. That was my last dream. With your aunt… I remember now! I was Slightly. That's who I was." He peered at her suddenly. "You didn't have an aunt did you? At least not her?"

"No I didn't. Most of that world was pretend. And Slightly looked nothing like you." Anamaria remarked with a casual smile, mischief lurking in her eyes. Will had the good grace to look slightly abashed.

"All right. I see what you mean now." He told her, shaking his head. Neither he nor Anamaria or Elizabeth who had so far been sitting with her mouth somewhat open in shock and curiosity as she watched her husband and the first mate talk, saw that Jack Sparrow had gone very still and quiet as soon as the conversation had began. He was too quiet for it to be characteristic of him but the others were too involved in their discovery to let anything distract them for a while. "What about you Elizabeth? Did you have any such strange dreams when you were a child?" Will Turner asked his wife.

"No, no… unfortunately not. What you are describing… it sounds fascinating. I'm sure that not a lot of people can say that they have experienced something like that. Do you remember all of it?" She wondered.

"Oh. I don't know. Now that I remembered, it's all coming back slowly but I thought that dreams were all they were and I spent so much time trying to forget them." Will confessed.

They came upon the island and so all stepped out and took in their surroundings. But no one noticed the way that the trees all seemed to lean towards the travelers or one in particular and follow him as he walked in a small circle, trying to take inventory from a mind that could hardly think.

"We'll camp here tonight." Captain Jack Sparrow announced to his bewildered crew. Pointing to a couple of crewmembers, he ordered them to find wood for the fire and assigned a couple more to the task of finding some edible fruits in the forests. Then he turned to his friends and gestured to the dense forest behind him.

"I'm going to check out the forest. See if I can find anything useful about this place. Stay with the rest of the crew." He ordered and without waiting for an answer, turned and walked swiftly and deliberately into the thick trees as though he knew exactly where it was that he was going.

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He remembered waking in terror, cold and hungry, unable to understand where he was, his last memory having been of another time and another place; another world.

The doctors had called his recovery a miracle. To celebrate, they wanted to cut open his head and to see what it was that had made him tick, made him so lucky. So Jack ran. He had been not much more then a child and yet he had taken to leadership like a crown prince to his thrown. It was then that he ran into and fell deeply in love with the Pearl and made Captain of her not long after that.

He had never had another episode as the doctors had so carefully termed it, these lapses of hours and days at a time where he was elsewhere, in another land. He had long ago decided that it didn't matter if he was crazy. But if he wasn't… if it hadn't been insanity…

With trembling fingers, Jack parted the foliage in front of him, unsure of what he subconsciously wanted himself to find. He had begun recognizing the scenery not long and now there it stood. The great tree. What he had called home.

Inside, it was much the same as he had remembered it. In fact nothing had changed. His bed was still there, as was the flower that held Wendy's 'medicine'. He had refused to even touch it after they had left even though she had left it specifically for him, reminding him to take it each day. The 'cup' was still full. He reached out and touched the bed; his childhood.

"You remember." Someone whispered behind him and Jack closed his eyes at the voice.

"Tink." He turned and saw her standing behind him. "Why…" She was as tall as a normal human, albeit with a shining, yellow glow all around her and she was as beautiful as he remembered. And he did remember. Everything.

"Because you believe, Peter. Because you want to see me as your equal. Sh." She whispered as he opened his mouth to talk. "I know you don't understand. Not yet. But I'll explain everything." She motioned him over to the bed. "Please sit and I will tell you everything. It is a rather long story after all." She smiled at him and Jack sat, even if a little bit suspiciously and Tinkerbell sat down beside him.

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Please, please, please review. I need to know if anyone likes this.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you to **meowbooks** for reviewing chapter two. I'm glad you liked that part and I am really glad thatpeople arestill reading.

Disclaimer – still not mine.

I hope that everyone will enjoy this latest chapter.

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"It started long ago." Tinkerbell began softly. "In the beginning, magic had been able to coexist peacefully with humans and there had been no problem. Then, people started being afraid of it, of anything that they did not understand and they started wishing it away. Peter, if people don't want something strongly enough, it will disappear. It's a type of magic all on it's own. So our elders came together and had a brilliant idea. They created a spell that would bind one human child to us, to our entire magical world. One child per generation. One child who believed the strongest and this one child's belief would keep us alive. All that would be expected of this child is a couple of visits." She laughed softly.

"What did you do to me? How was I here and in the real world at the same time?" Jack asked her.

"Your mind was here. We couldn't bring your body here yet because we can't leave this place." Tink explained.

"My nightmares."

"Yes. It was the only way we knew to keep you anchored in both world and somewhat able to understand what was happening in your world when you woke up enough to keep your real body alive."

"And this was enough. Me only here in my dreams." Jack wondered skeptically.

"Yes, it was." His fairy informed him. "We brought you here to us in your mind and since you believed, it was enough. You were here and you were real to us and this was good for then. We needed you to come back of coarse, which is why you are here now." Jack nodded at that to show that he understood having ran out of more questions to ask.

"You know, you were always different then the other children." Tink said reminiscently. "All the other children were always completely happy here alone, exploring. You on the other hand wanted playmates, so we brought more children here to keep you happy and to keep you occupied for the duration of your stay."

"But they left." Jack whispered softly.

"Yes. They left and we let you go. You did well, Captain Jack Sparrow. You can go back to your friends for now. I'll be here, always with you but they won't be able to see me yet. Only before you go, I need to bond you back to the island, to reaffirm your bond. Give me your hand Peter."

"Why do you call me Peter?" He asked.

"That's what you called yourself." Came the simple answer. "It's the only name I remember for you. Do you even remember the one that you were born with?" Tink asked gently.

"No. Are Will and Anamaria…?" His voice trailed off, unwilling to face what he was asking even as he was asking it but Tink nodded in response.

"Yes Peter." She admitted. "Give me your hand." He handed it to her numbly and then melted into the warmth that radiated through her into him, filling him, completing him…

"No!" He lunged away from the fairy, scrambling backwards on the bed, hardly aware that there was nowhere left to go. "No." He whispered hoarsely again. "I'm already complete."

"What?" Tinkerbell searched his eyes curiously and without warning, grabbed his face in both hands, holding him tightly with inhumane strength so that he could not move. "Oh Peter, what did you do?" She murmured.

"What? What did I do?" Jack asked, coming back to himself.

"You bonded with her didn't you?" Tinkerbell sighed on a laugh touching her forehead to his. "We shouldn't have left you alone in that world."

"What did I do?" he asked again.

"You bonded with the Pearl you silly. It's going to hurt you know. The island and the boat will pull on you from two different directions all the time and the pain is not going to go away. It's just going to decrease or increase for short periods of time, depending on where you will be." The fairy explained. "When you will be away form your ship, it will pull at you and call you and that will hurt. When you will be aboard, that pain will lessen, but the pull and call of the island will be stronger and will hurt more. A constant tug and pull no matter where you are."

"When I bonded with the Pearl, it must have been before she was taken from me. I remember the pain." Jack told her flatly. "Can this double bond kill me?"

"No, I don't think so. If you want, we can break the bond to your ship…" She suggested timidly, already knowing how the man would respond to that suggestion and was proven right when Jack Sparrow shook his head vehemently.

"I can deal with the pain but I won't let you take the Pearl away from me. Not again." He told her, handing her his hand again. "Do it. Complete the other bond."

"Alright." The warmth filled him again and this time, Jack did not pull away. He let it fill him completely and embraced the pain that followed. "Go back to them Peter. They are worried." Tinkerbell told him when it was all over.

"They…" He couldn't talk about it yet. Not with the newly regaining memories still swirling in his scull. There had been too many betrayals in his life and this one hurt more then the others partly because it was one of the first.

"You were but children Peter. Talk to them, ask them what went wrong." Tink suggested, knowing, as always, as before, his problem before even he did. They left the big tree together and Jack started back out towards where they had made camp when he suddenly stopped and turned around, the classic Captain Jack Sparrow grin back on his face.

"Can I fly?" He asked.

"You can do anything you want. This is yours." Tinkerbell whispered with a wave of her hand that showed the expanse of the island. "Thank you for believing." She said as she became small again and began to fly away in the opposite direction. "Just call if you need me. I'm always here for you Peter." The tiny fairy whispered into the Captain's ear before her glow took her deeper into the forest and Jack started out toward the beach with a shocked smile on his face.

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Please, please, please review. I really need to know what people think of this story of mine. Thank you for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

Wow, thank you to **cal** that answered my plea for reviews.

Cal – wow! I was so delighted to see that you read my story. Yes, I saw your novellas and I always wondered how you managed to write so much. Oh so that's how you do it! I got this idea one day and I hope that other people would find the idea of Captain Jack Sparrow being Peter Pan as fascinating as me. I'm glad that you do. I'd love towrite more Jack/Ana stories. Please, if you have any ideas, feel free to tell them to me and I'll try my best. the following is myanswer to the comments and any questions you had on the chapters.

Chapter one/two – I really love the way you review. I feel like I am reading my story through your eyes. And I really like it. It's wonderful to see how others see it. Thank you.

Chapter three – I am so glad that you love this story. You totally made my day! You're right. Liz makes more sense being Wendy but that didn't fit into my story. It had to be Ana. About '"unfortunate" children being excluded' – I actually didn't think of that but I think you're right. Neverland was a place of escape. Maybe they needed to escape reality more then the other ones.

The medicine that I was talking about was some water that Wendy put into a flower cup (I think) and gave to the boys to take – playing her part of mother. Have fun watching the Peter Pan movie. I thought that it was really good. The title of this story is also a line form there.

Chapter four – When he is asking what has been done to him – I think that he is just really confused. He just found out that he isn't as crazy as he thought and his dreams happened.

The 'real names' part – I'm sorry. I can see that that didn't come across quite as I wanted it to. What he meant was if Ana and Will were really Wendy and Slightly. So yes, I think you did get what I was trying to say.

You're right. Anamaria is a much more complimentary piece for him but he isn't bonded to her. Yet. Soon though.

Uh oh I hope I live up to your expectations.

I can't wait to hear from you again on chapter five. Thank you!

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"Did you find anything?" Elizabeth called when she saw Jack headed back to them from the trees. The crew was spread out all over the beach, some still doing their jobs such as looking for twigs, edible food and others just lounging around on the soft fine sand.

"No." Jack told her in a split second decision. "Nothing of importance. We might have to stay here for a while though. I'm not exactly sure why we are here yet but everyone can always use some vacation time lying on a beautiful tropical island, right?"

"Sure." Elizabeth told him brightly. "I'm sure that everyone will love it here."

"Great. I trust that Anamaria took charge and assigned jobs and rotation?" The Captain asked and she nodded. A crew member called from the other side of the beach and Jack followed the calls, helping out where he could and answering questions, laughing with his crew until he came up to Anamaria who sat on a low rock supervising any work that happened to be going on.

"We'll be here a while." He told her sitting down on the sand beside her rock. "At least a week. There is no help for it. I don't think that the island would let us leave."

"You didn't find out anything useful on your walk?" She asked somewhat worriedly, stopping at an uninhabited island with your crew for a night was one thing but being stuck on an uninhabited island with a perfectly working ship at your beck and call was completely another.

"We're safe here Ana. Just a week long vacation. Do you think the crew…" He didn't have to finish. Anamaria knew exactly what he meant.

"No Jack." She hurried to reassure him. "We're not at all out of money so we don't exactly need to be out there taking ships and who doesn't want to relax on a beach for a while? We'll all back you captain." She told him honestly and Captain Jack Sparrow nodded and regarded her thoughtfully. Everything else aside, she was his first mate and as such, privy to the thoughts of the rest of the crew. And regardless of trust, he knew with certainty that she would tell him the truth about some matters. He only wished that he could talk to her about the occurrence of years ago but the opportune time had not yet come.

Together, they told the crew of the plans for the near future. They did not yet know why the strange and unnatural winds had brought them to this island of all places but they were sure that no harm would befall them here. They would stay until they could figure out why they were there or the island would let them go back. Till them, it would be a fun vacation.

Jack and Anamaria assigned permanent tasks and rotations to the crew so that they didn't wander around with absolutely nothing to do and Captain Jack Sparrow told them from memory how to get to the waterfall where they could all wash and drink. He was weary of letting the entire crew roam free on the island, remembering the Indians but there was really nothing that he could do to contain a large group of restless pirates, so he told them to stay close to camp until they knew more about the place and was relieved when everybody agreed.

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The sun sat on the horizon right in front of the watching pirates and Jack thought that it only sat down there because they were there and that it would rise there as well so that everyone could see.

People were already sleeping or else talking quietly amongst themselves when Jack stood silently from his place right in front of the fire and walked down to the edge of the water of the cove. His ship sat black and silent, a strong outline against the bright starry sky. It called to him to come home and Jack shook his head sadly.

"Not yet luv. I'll come when I can, I'll come soon." He whispered out into the ocean in front of him and saw the sails of the Pearl move in silent sad response. He remembered doing this the first time that the Black Pearl had been so cruelly taken away from him. He remembered standing at the edge of the water be it on land or sea and whispering the same words, sending them to his ship, promising to come back and he could always feel his ship respond.

Jack crouched down and trailed his hand in the water.

"Come on croc, I know you're out there. I just wanna see you." He called out softly as not to alert his crew behind him. Then he waited. And waited. He had been thinking of the crocodile the entire evening and wondered if it was still haunting the waters, still ticking.

What seemed like hours later, Jack the low, steady ticking of a clock and seconds later, a big crocodile crawled out of the water and headed straight at him. Any other man would have been mortally afraid in his situation but Jack Sparrow could feel the ties that bound him to the island and though the island, to the crocodile. And though he didn't know how to yet, he felt that he would be able to stop the croc in his tracks should there be any need of that.

The crocodile came to his outstretched hand and seemed to snuggle, like a perfectly trained dog. Yes, eating the Peter Pan was definitely completely counterproductive.

Jack relaxed on the sand, beside the croc and lay down close to the water, being as close to his ship as he could possibly, physically be without leaving the island. He stroked the rough crocodile skin until he fell into a peaceful sleep and the croc stayed to guard his dreams and his life.

Neither saw the Pearl's first mate quietly watching the proceedings from the sidelines in total, silent confusion.

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Please, please, please review. I love reviews!


	6. Chapter 6

Hello everyone. The answers to the reviews are at the bottom. To Cal and Hooliday1081 - thank you so much for reviewing!

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The mermaids woke him up. They touched his face, his hands, pulling him into the water.

"No." Albeit somewhat regretfully, Jack Sparrow pushed himself up and out of their reach. "Can't breathe under water like you. Remember?" He asked.

"Peter Pan is really here." One of them remarked.

"Yes. He is. I am." Then he thought of something else. "My friends, the people that came here with me they are under my protection. They can't breathe under water, don't take them under, alright?" The mermaids nodded and promised and slipped back under the water's protection.

Jack Sparrow looked around the campsite. It was early yet and most of the pirates were still asleep. To his delight, Jack noticed that the pain Tinkerbell had talked about the day before, had lessened. It was perhaps because it had been new before but he was used to it now and the pulling sensation itself was a familiar one to him. The Pearl had pulled at him in the exact same way for ten long years, long enough for him to have gotten used to the sensation and regard it as only a familiar if constant annoyance. He smiled as he saw Elizabeth headed in his direction.

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AnaMaria caught Will Turner as the man came back from washing up in the woods in the early morning.

"Will." She called and pulled him away from the prying curious eyes of the rest of the pirate crew and under the cover of the trees. Will Turner looked at the other woman in confusion. They didn't usually have a lot to say to each other and whatever she did say to him. Didn't really need the kind of privacy that she wanted now. "Do you remember those dreams that we both shared? How well do you remember Neverland?" AnaMaria asked softly.

"I… pretty well I would say." He answered finally, after much thought to overcome the abruptness of the unusual question.

"But would you recognize it if you saw it?" She pressed.

"Ye… I think so." Thinking back on it now, his memories of that time were pretty clear regardless of the fact that they had happened years ago and in a dream.

"Is this Neverland?" The first mate of the Black Pearl asked Will bluntly.

"Oh." The other managed to utter, completely speechless.

"I saw something very strange last night." She continued quietly yet urgently. "Most everyone was asleep and Jack got up to got to the edge of the water and I just wanted to make sure that he was alright so I followed him and … I couldn't hear what he said, he was saying something, but there was a crocodile. It was so large. It came out of the water and just lay down beside him. The thing is, the reason I'm asking you this question is because the crocodile was ticking. Loudly, as though it had a clock inside of it. None of us have something that could tick so loudly. And I'm not sure if I remember correctly… but didn't Captain Hook get eaten by a ticking crocodile?" AnaMaria finished in a rush, sounding uncertain and scared in a kind of excites anxiety.

William Turner Junior thought about what he was going to say for a long while before he answered. He had been so sure that he would know the infamous island if he ever saw it again but up till just then, it had always been a hypothetical question. It had all been nice and good talking about it with AnaMaria but he never actually imagined being back. Regardless of anything, it had always been just a dream. A fanciful, childhood dream and it had never been real.

"Neverland… AnaMaria, it was just a dream." He told her. "The island was never real. We may have shared the dreams but dreams were all that they were."

"Then how do you explain what I heard? That crocodile was ticking Will. It wasn't just in my mind."

"Then maybe, maybe it's the island that is doing this. Maybe it's playing with our minds somehow. He still tried to find some kind of a different explanation.

"But what if it is Neverland?" AnaMaria asked a little desperately. "What if it wasn't just dreams?" She had sat up for most of the night thinking about it, thoughts twirling in a whirl and she had come no closer to a solution. One thing was certain though and that was that it was impossible for two people to have the same dream without a supernatural explanation involved.

"Then this will all be very strange." Will confessed. "You really think that this might really be Neverland?" He questioned.

"Maybe." Ana sighed. "I don't know anymore."

"Do you think…" Will began then stopped. He seemed to be pausing in the middle of speaking a lot in this conversation. "If this is Neverland, do you think that… Peter Pan is still here?" He asked hesitatingly. Peter Pan was something of a legend to him. Something like Captain Jack Sparrow was to Elisabeth before they met. Someone to emulate and admire, someone completely shrouded in mystery. Even in the dreams, on the island when he had lived and played together with the other boy, Peter Pan had always been somewhat removed from the other children. He had been a good and fun leader and maybe because of that they had often viewed him as just a leader instead of one of them. Seeing him again would be strange, Will decided; Peter Pan still a child, AnaMaria and him, Wendy and Slightly all grown up. But perhaps he wouldn't remember them. Will remembered the problems that Peter Pan had had with his memory, sometimes as far as forgetting who he was talking to and what about form one moment to the next.

"Yes. He will." AnaMaria said confidently and matter of factly. "He's Peter Pan, it where he belongs."

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"Remember how we were stranded together on an island almost just like this one not too, long ago?" Elizabeth asked. She was laying on her back on the warm sand, Jack Sparrow stretched out beside her. She had awoken a little earlier the most that morning, took some berries form the breakfast pile others had gathered even earlier that morning and went to greet her Captain. After a leisurely breakfast, they now relaxed on the beach. Because that is what people do on vacation; relax the entire day. Jack Sparrow of all people had no complaints about going back to sleep after having spent a nice night doing just that.

"Yes. You burnt my rum!" He exclaimed in mock anger as though still upset over that fact.

"Well I'm not going to burn any this time." She told him firmly.

"Not stranded this time luv." She was informed.

"We don't have that much rum either this time." Elizabeth added. "And it looks like we'll be here much longer then we were there. I really don't want to deprive you of your beloved rum for so long." Captain Jack Sparrow smirked. The truth was that he didn't actually like rum all that much and definitely didn't drink as much of it as he professed. It just gave him something to do, something else and more trivial to worry about when he needed to take his mind off of things and it added a lot to his overall persona.

"We've got enough for now." He told the young Mrs. Turner.

He actually really, truly liked this. This lying in the sun, feeling soft, hot sand underneath his body, relaxing in total peace. Somewhere else, someone was talking… to him?

"Captain!" He lifted a hand lazily as though to swat them away. "Captain, we need to talk to you." He squinted through the bright glare of the sun at whoever was rude enough to wake him up and recognized AnaMaria and Will standing side by side, united in question. A quick glance at Elizabeth proved that she had also fallen asleep and was definitely still asleep beside him. "Captain, I'm sorry but we need to talk. It's important." AnaMaria apologized actually looking apologetic for a change. Sighing, Captain Jack got up from hi comfortable spot of the ground and lead his two crewmates away form the sleeping girl and under some shade.

"What is it?" He asked, a little worried. His first mate knew not to wake him her Captain unless it was something urgent and important. Will looked at AnaMaria, urging her to start.

"I think I know why we are here." AnaMaria began and Jack nodded at her to continue. "I don't know if you remember but Will and I, on the way here in the boat, we talked about these shared dreams that we both had when we were children. They were about an island just like this one. We called it Neverland. And there was this boy there who called himself Peter Pan." She paused again. "We think that we're here for some reason that's connected to these dreams that we've had. We both recognize this island as Neverland." She stopped, finished, happy to have been the one to have figured this out. Captain Jack Sparrow blinked at her thoughtfully.

"We for sure don't want to rule anything out…" He said slowly. "Have you talked about this to anyone else?" He asked suddenly. Will shook his head.

"No. Just between ourselves." He told him.

"Oh. All right. Well…" Jack swayed in his place for a moment. "It could be just this island that's doing this, playing with us, making us believe things that aren't true, playing with us." He suggested, mirroring what Will had said only moments before. "Or maybe it only looks like the other one. I mean it's all vegetation in the Caribbean. It's bound to have something that looks the same as someplace else."

"Not a ticking croc!" Ana burst out. Jack stopped swaying, fully Captain, instantly for a moment cured of all movement.

"What?" He asked curiously.

"I saw you with the croc yesterday night Jack. And I heard it tick. You can't tell me it didn't. And you can't tell me that two islands will both have ticking crocodiles." She insisted.

"Oh." Captain Jack Sparrow swayed again, thinking. "So do you think that the island will tell us what it wants of us soon?" He asked them finally.

"Peter Pan might know." AnaMaria said. "He was always here, it was his. If anyone would know anything about it, he would."

"Alright. We'll watch out for him then." Jack said in a voice that ended the conversation.

"Peter Pan never wanted to grow up, Captain. We should be watching out for a boy. A boy that can fly." His first mate advised her Captain and Jack nodded as though not surprised at all.

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"So what do I do now? When is it time for them to know?" Jack asked into the morning air when his friends wandered away, not exactly expecting an answer, yet was not surprised when it came form behind him.

"Soon Peter, soon." Tinkerbell murmured lying a gently hand on his shoulder. Then she was gone too and Jack flopped down onto his original place on the sand beside Elizabeth and thought deeply about his current wonderful predicament.

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Holliday1081 – Thank you so much for listening to Cal and reading my story. I love your stories and I feel so special that you are reading mine. Thank you – this idea just called to me, I had to write it. I'm glad you like. I solved the pain problem as you can see – I really didn't want to have him in constant pain for the remainder of the tale. Thank you for bringing it to my attention and I'm not sure with the choosing yet but we'll see. 8-) Again, thank you for reviewing!

Cal - Wow. I've been eagerly awaiting your review ever since I posted chapter five – a couple of hours. Thank you for replying. Nope – not scared away. It took me a while to start writing fan fiction after only to read about it; you could always try and see what comes out. Your muse might surprise you yet. 8-)!

I hope that I capture them well. Writing fan fiction and capturing the characters properly is not as easy as it looks as I have discovered recently.

How would I 'toot my own horn' to anybody? I don't know – I'm just writing here! If you would, that would be great, I really would like people to read my story. Thank you in advance!

I really do appreciate your comments so much. Despite the horrible way that I review – by saying; this is good, please update, your way of reviewing makes the author think about the story and about how to make it better. Seeing it through someone else's eyes you get a different viewpoint and see things that you might not have put that much emphasis on but perhaps should have or the opposite.

I'm so glad that you watched and liked the movie. I never thought about it that way but you're right – watching it and having my story in mind would make a big difference. Wow, I feel so special 8-).

Who wrote a story about Jack holding Ana as a baby? Was it good? (The fic) I am constantly on the lookout for something really good to read.

Chapter five – I don't think that Ana was working that much. Mostly supervising. Besides what is there to do? I was thinking about it and came up with wood, berries, and tents. Pretty much it. I don't think that Jack was working either. He was just talking to his crew like a good friendly captain would. As mentioned before – I don't think that there is a lot to do.

Uh oh did what Jack was thinking about Ana telling him things part come across wrong? What I meant was that he knew she would tell him things. He knows that he can trust her. No question about that. But he is still hurt that she left all those years ago. Oh I just went back to reread that line and you're right, I can see where you thought that. The thing is he know internally that he can trust her even if he hasn't realized it yet but even if he didn't, she is a good first mate and would tell him things so he can rely on her. One of the themes of this story is betrayal so he is constantly going to be thinking things like that. Jack isn't threatening her though, he feels betrayed by her, and she just doesn't realize it yet.

Yes, the crew would probably have been running around otherwise, looking frantically for something to do to pass the time.

I'm glad that you liked the croc scene. I didn't actually mean it to seem that the croc said that – just as an observation but I can see how it came across like that and that works too. Lol. You see how hard writing is? Lol

Your two questions – 1. Wow. I don't know, I didn't think of it at all. Thank you for pointing it out. Since I think I changed it all around somewhat, I don't think that Tink will be jealous of Wendy but happy for Peter instead. She seemed proud of what he made of himself so maybe she is a type of mother figure to him now.

2. The way I was thinking of hook was as a role model for Jack. It's how he knew how to be a good captain when he woke up again in the real world. Hook is gone – eaten by a croc in the end, right? But I want to bring him back (because this is Neverland and everything is possible) for Peter to say thank you. Father figure?

Tell me what you think. And such a long answer to a review is probably illegal. Oy. Lol. So I had to write a really long chapter to compensate.


	7. Chapter 7

Jack Sparrow looked out at the setting sun knowing that it was setting just for him. He wasn't sure exactly where he was but he knew where camp was. On the opposite side of the island. It was this strange awareness of his surroundings he had now, knowing where he was at all times and where everyone else were even if he had not been there.

Shortly after his confrontation with Anamaria and Will, he had tired of sitting there with nothing to do and had gone off exploring. Jack Sparrow did not tell anyone where he was going because he didn't know it himself but he knew that Ana would take good and firm care of his crew in his absence.

He had wondered a bit through the forest, feeling the magic of the island reaching out to him. It called him somewhere and he didn't know where until he came to stand in front of the Indian camp.

It looked just like he had remembered it which was probably the reason that it did. He had also expected that they would all grow up, same as he did so that's exactly what had happened. He stood silently behind the tall trees and watched as the village went on with their daily business. Mothers bustled around the fire and little children played nearby.

Then he saw her. She had a little toddler in her arms as she walked out of one of the teepees. Then she froze as though feeling something bad turned around staring directly at where Jack was hiding and strode purposely in his direction. He stepped out when she got close enough and she stopped, seeing him for the first time.

"I heard that you were back Peter. We all felt it." She told him quietly. "You sure took your time getting here." Then when he grinned at her, she smiled too and putting the child down, ran the rest of the way and threw her arms around Jack.

His childhood playmate. Tigerlily. She looked older, but beautiful and when she hugged him, he could see that she was with child. Despite all of the bickering they had done as children or maybe because of it, Jack had always thought of Tigerlilly as a younger sister. She was one of the only things that he had missed from Neverland.

"It took me a while to find your camp." He confessed. "You didn't see my crew around did you?"

"Your crew?" She giggled. "More lost boys?"

"You can say that. My pirate crew." Captain Jack Sparrow admitted.

"Pirates!" Tigerlilly gasped in laughter. "You hated pirates!"

"It was the only adult influence I had." Captain Jack Sparrow shrugged unremorsefully. "I'm good at it I think. Is he yours?" He pointed to the child playing quietly where he had been left at their feet. She nodded.

"I have another older girl and …" She trailed off touching her fingertips to her stomach, a soft happy smile on her lips. Jack picked up the child and laughed when the little boy gave a big tug at his beard.

"He looks like you." He told Tigerlilly. "I'm glad you're happy. I missed you."

"And how do you know I'm happy?" His childhood playmate teased.

"I can tell by your smile." She threw her arms around him again, her child and all.

"I missed you too Peter."

"I think I might have to…" He trailed off, gesturing vaguely behind him.

"Go. I know." Tigerlilly nodded. "It's the island calling you. You are our salvation regardless of how that sounds. I called you here I think and the rest of the island is calling too. I'd come with you but... my children."

"That's alright. Just… my crew might come here. Don't kill them alright? You could scare them though." He smiled at her mischievously. "And Wendy and Slightly are here too. Do what you want with them, they'll probably remember you." Tigerlilly nodded her consent.

"We will Peter. Have fun. Some back here if you can afterwards. I want to introduce you to my husband and my children. Officially I mean." She lifted her child form Jack's arms and after giving the Captain one last smile, and lightly kissing his cheek, she turned and headed back to camp without looking back and pretty soon, Jack also moved on.

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He had walked all over Neverland then, following the call to all of the places that he used to play in as a child.

And now he stood on a cliff overlooking the ocean. He had been so sure that so many hours had passed since he had sat out on this strange trek of his. Yet at the same time, while thinking that, he had willed it to stay light for just a little longer and just a little more so that he would be able to see where it was that he was going.

When he was finally done, he had found himself on this cliff, watching as the sun sat in front of him in its full glory as though wanting to show off to the island's Peter Pan.

With the setting of the sun, the darkness of the night descended around Jack Sparrow. His mind reviewed the day that he had just lived in every vivid detail and his thoughts turned to the moment that he decided to not tell Ana and Will the truth. That moment bothered him.

Tink had told him that they wouldn't be able to see her yet. He had thought that that had meant that he shouldn't tell his friends the truth just yet. But did she say that they wouldn't be able to see her yet because they didn't believe yet? Well they believed now. If they believed in Peter Pan then surely they believed in Tink.

And then there was that strange feeling that he had gotten just when he thought that he had enough courage to tell them the truth. Something telling him that he must not tell them anything, which they must not know. He had been so confused that doing what the odd compulsion told him to felt natural and it was gone by the time he had tried to analyze it.

"Tink?" He asked quietly. "Is it the island?"

"Yes." Even though she had just appeared practically out of thin air, she knew exactly what he was asking. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it would work against Slightly and Wendy of all people but it's a reflex that the island has developed and perfected over the centuries. It will try to prevent you from telling anyone its secrets. If you really want to tell them Peter, then just talk through the feeling. You are Peter Pan after all and the magic will come to trust you."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he asked the glowing fairy who smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry Peter. I forget sometimes that there are still things about this place that you do not know. Every Chosen has his own fairy. I'm new at this, same as you."

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He ran back. Not knowing how long it would take him to come back, understanding almost as little as he did in the beginning but he realized that he wanted to share this part of himself with his friends. His friends who had been there to share almost every part of his childhood. His friends who had never betrayed him. His faithful crew. Gibbs and Elizabeth. His best friend Slightly nad his Wendy. The girl he had tried so hard to love when the island had commandeered almost his entire self to the bond.

It must have been the middle of the night when he got back because the moon was full up in the middle of the sky and all of the pirates where deeply asleep. Taking a deep breath Captain Jack Sparrow crouched beside his first mate's bedroll. He admired for a moment how that moonlight lit her features, illuminated them in a magical light. He would have happily sat there for the entire night watching his first mate sleep but he knew form personal experience that procrastination only made things worse.

"Ana. Ana, we need to talk." Jack said, echoing those same words that she had said to him earlier in the day. "Ana, wake up." He wasn't even sure why he was waking them up in the middle of the night except that he didn't want his story told in full daylight where he would have nowhere to hide and anyone could listen in.

Anamaria awoke slowly to see her Captain shaking her awake.

"Where were you?" she asked groggily though still managing to sound accusing.

"I had something to do." He told her. "You'll understand soon. I have to tell you something." Something that Ana never thought she'd ever see, Jack actually looked nervous at whatever news he was about to impart to her. Or maybe it was the moonlight.

"Alright." She said invitingly but he shook his head.

"Not here and not only you. Get Gibbs, Will and Elizabeth and meet me at the waterfalls. You know where they are?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll be there soon."

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**Authors note** – here is a question I really need answered. I had originally planned Captain Hook as a sort of father figure for Jack so that he would get to meet him again and thank him. But now I was thinking, what if Captain Hook was Borbossa? Does anyone else see the resemblance? What do you want to see? Any preferences?

**Cal** – you check for updates prob the same way I check for your reviews. Thank you! No! No Mary Sue's there are so many wonderful characters already ready to chose from. Thank you for telling me the story by J.L. Dexter. I didn't read all of the series but what I read – the beginning of it I liked and I saw the part you were talking about – him holding her – I'm going to have to go back and read more one of these days. I realised that I didn't want Jack betraying anybody so you can see what I did about it. Lol. Uh oh did you want more angst? Have fun on vacation and check my profile page for a present. 8-)

Thank you to **zareen, ****FantasyChick****ellennar** (you're right about the scandal and about the croc. Lol)

**meowbooks** (so happy to see you back here reviewing) **Johnny-cakes-Depp** (thank you, you're review is great regardless of how long it is) and **J.L. Dexter** (yes, Cal is amazing, she made me feel so welcome here! I liked your stories as well though I didn't read everything yet. If you ever have the time and desire, tell me what I'm doing wrong with my writing – in examples – I would love to improve it. Thank you so much for reviewing!)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone and Cal get an honorable mention. Thank you!

Please continue reviewing. 8-)


	8. Chapter 8

He was terrified though he would never admit it to them. How could he tell someone else something so private, so innate about himself? The clouds in the sky briefly covered the moon and then uncovered it again. A tentative wind blew though the leaves then died down, the weather behaving as though unsure of what it was supposed to be doing.

Jack perched himself on top of a rock by the edge if the waterfall and closed his eyes, trying to get a better sense of equilibrium. Suddenly, without warning, he could feel the magic of the island enter his mind spreading out within.

With a gasp, his eyes flew open. He knew that the magic was trying to do. He remembered it. It was trying to erase, to block off his memories. The same way it had done or rather tried to do when he was a child in order to keep him happy and content. Only whatever the magic had done, hadn't worked properly, ever. Where it had been intended only to make him forget all the bad things in his day, little insults and disappointment so that nothing could mar the happiness and continuing existence of Neverland, it had made him forget everything, important things at random times. It hadn't worked at all when he had truly needed that forgetfulness.

"Haven't you learned anything?" He asked wryly into his own mind, firmly pushing the magic away. "I need my mind. Thank you." He hadn't fought it as a child because it had taken him by surprise and he had been unable to remember why it was even bad. But he was older, smarter and more capable now. Nothing would close off his own mind to his own self unless he wished it to be so, let alone on his own domain.

The others had already gathered by the time he claimed his easy won victory and with his voice soft in the darkness, he began his tale.

"There was an island once." Gibbs was the storyteller amongst them but this was Jack's story to tell. "It was the only one left that contained and protected magic, which the world had long forgotten. But magic exists on belief. For this island to exist, and keep on existing, someone had to believe. One child per generation, linked to this island, seeing it, believing it completely so that it could survive. This generation's child was a boy who called himself Peter Pan. Gibbs, Elizabeth, you heard the story that Ana and Will told. The dreams that they had. You were right Anamaria, this is Neverland. And we are here for exactly that reason, because Peter Pan had to come back to see the island and to believe in it once again. And I know this because I was, I am Peter Pan."

Silence greeted his declaration.

"Oh Jack." Elizabeth whispered.

"Always knew that there was something special about that lad." Gibbs commented to Elizabeth who nodded empathetically. The other two parties in their circle did not look as thrilled. In fact they looked more shocked then anything else.

"We should leave them by 'emselves lass. They got to talk." Gibbs pulled Elizabeth to her feet with a rare insight. She looked back at the three for a moment and then disappeared into the trees behinds the quartermaster.

Once they were alone, Anamaria turned to Jack.

"How long have you known this?" She asked quietly.

"Since we came ashore." Captain Jack Sparrow confessed.

"Yet…"

"I couldn't tell you!" He burst out. "The opportune moment." None noticed but above them in the dark, clouds began gathering reacting to their bond mate's distress. "Tink said something and this island is not too happy to have her secrets told." Jack didn't want them to feel betrayed and he wanted them to understand but he wasn't sure if he knew how.

Ana nodded slowly though her Captain could hardly see hat in the dark. She knew how hard it was for Jack to open up to anyone and even though she was a little hurt that he had practically brushed off her concerns and revelations that morning, she could understand and sympathize with his reason.

Suddenly Anamaria almost cried out with sudden understanding. Captain Jack Sparrow was Peter Pan. She remembered him as the cocky child that she had fallen hopelessly in love with. Peter had brought her to a wonderful place, gave her an escape out of her problems no matter how temporary and like the impressionable young girl that she was, she had fallen in love with her rescuer. Ana had not always had a home as a child but when she did, she had always made sure that the window was open for Peter, regardless of the weather outside.

"Peter." She whispered. "Jack." They met halfway, arms around each other, learning and relearning everything they had ever known about the other. "I believe you. I believe you." She said again and this time it was a promise for the future that they both heard in her words. A promise for forever.

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Neither noticed as Will Turner slowly stood and just as quietly left the clearing. He had way too much to think about before he could about anything objectively.

Peter and Jack. Jack and Peter. The same person. He remembered thinking about Peter just half a day before. It suddenly seemed so much longer. Of coarse Jack and Peter Pan were the same person. It was the only way that it could be. Thinking back on it, he wondered why it was that Jack had never reminded him of Peter. Probably it was because he met Jack so much after knowing Peter, he had all but forgotten about Neverland.

Abruptly, he remembered Peter's crestfallen, pained expression as he had delivered them all to their new homes in London. He had turned around for a second and had seen the flying ship start to horrifyingly fall to the ground before Peter plastered a smile onto his face, placed his hand on the railing of the ship and it had evened out and sailed straight on foreword.

Will had turned back to find their group gone and had gotten lost trying to find his own way.

Maybe that was why he had never made that connection before. Besides the fact that he had been convinced that it had all been a dream, the last impression he had had of Peter Pan had been the pain and betrayal on the other boy's features and that deep sense of guilt that he had felt at betraying his best friend. Because despite the fact that Peter Pan was the leader and they often viewed him only as such, Will had considered him a best friend.

Slightly had been one of the first to find himself in Neverland that first time and now after being here for a while, memories that he hadn't an inkling of before were coming back to him. He could remember how Peter and him had sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean, just the two of them, talking about anything and everything in the universe, acting like people so much older then their age or just sitting in comfortable silence.

Things had changed after the other lost boys had made it onto the island and Peter's memory problems became more pronounced. He could no longer have long meaningful conversations as much as young boys could or even sit still for long periods of time. They still found themselves on their cliff occasionally but it wasn't the same.

Only when they had left, Peter's eyes had been clear and sober like they hadn't been for a long while. There was no way that Slightly could have convinced himself into thinking that Peter didn't understand or care about their departure.

In the sky, the sun curiously peeked out from behind a hill, asking for permission to rise.

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**Cal** – 2 chapters! Happy? I thought of you while writing them. lol. Have fun reading!


	9. Chapter 9

"Where did you live as a child?" Anamaria asked. She lay comfortably on the ground leaning against her Captain.

"London." Jack Sparrow had never told her anything about his life before she met him but it was different now. Now that he knew he could trust her and for the first time he realized that he actually wanted his friends to know his life, to know him. "I lived with my parents until I got pulled into Neverland and then they put me into a mental asylum."

"Oh." Ana said in confusion and shock. "But why…" She was horrified that people would do that to a child of their own. "Surely no dream c…"

"No." Jack interrupted her shaking his head. "It wasn't dreams by me and not only at night. It happened by day as well. I wasn't aware of the real world at all. They told me that I just sat on the bed and stared at the wall all day if I wasn't asleep. I sometimes woke up for short periods of time in order to be able to eat. My parents couldn't take care of a child like that."

He understood that too. If the worry for their only child wasn't enough to kill them, the mortification made the situation even more complete. His parents hadn't been rich but they weren't poor and they kept on trying to fit into the rich ton society. A handicapped, daft child would have only crippled their chances further. They couldn't have accualy done anything for their son anyways and Jack hoped that they had at least gotten the attention they desired. He never went back to them.

"Do you remember the nightmares I used to have when I was Peter Pan?" He asked Ana. His first mate nodded. They had terrified her. It had been very frightening to see that such a happy child could have such horrible dreams.

"They happened whenever I awoke in the real world." Jack told her. "I didn't remember the real world at all. Whenever I woke up, there were people there trying to feed me and talk to me and keep me awake and I could never tall what was happening." Ana nodded, her heart clenching at the thought of how terrifying it must have been for him to go through that almost every single night.

"But where did you live when you were a child? How did you grow up?" Jack Sparrow expertly changed the subject realized that he wanted to know about Ana as much as she wanted to know about him.

"I lived in Tortuga on a small fishing boat of my father's. Neverland only came to me in dreams. I think that I dreamed a day a night and when I went to sleep there, I woke up here. It wasn't the same for me as it was for you it seems. Even in Neverland I knew that it was a dream. Waking up in the real world was what I expected to happen." Ana told him.

"What about John and Michael?"

"My brothers?" Ana confirmed with surprise. "The truth is I don't klnow who they were. Some lost boys I suppose. And I don't knopw why they came with me of all people. Perhaps I dreamed them up. I am an only child and I had often wished for brothers and sisters when I was younger."

"And now?" Ana laughed.

"Now I'm happy. I'm part of the best pirate crew in the Caribbean."

"Perhaps in the world?" Captain Jack Sparrow asked slyly.

"Perhaps." Ana pretended to think about it then nodded even though she didn't know if her Captain could see it and whispered "Definitely."

"I should take you to see Tigerlilly." Jack mused out loud after a couple of minutes of total silence. "She'll be happy to see you I think."

"Oh!" Ana hadn't even remembered Tigerlilly before Jack had brought up the subject.

"She's all grown up now with children of her own." Jack informed her. "She was always like a sister to me."

"Oh." This time it was a sigh of relief to know that there was no competition. Even though Ana hadn't really remembered Tigerlilly before, she now recalled a young girl their age who had quite happily played with Peter when they were younger. "Sure. I'd like that." She told him.

"Ana, why did you leave Neverland?" Jack Sparrow asked suddenly.

"I had to." The conversation had shifted somehow, becoming serious, very important and as Ana sensed, crucial in a way she could not yet understand. "Almost the same way that I knew I had to come, I knew I had to leave. I'm not sure that I can explain it any more then that. Like instinct or a sixth sense, when you absolutely know that you need to be somewhere. I knew I had to leave, that I couldn't stay there forever. Neverland wasn't meant for me and I needed real life. I was growing up there, taking on responsibilities and something in me, the adult perhaps knew that it was time to go."

She kept on talking trying to put her feelings into words, knowing without knowing why that she must make him understand and so scared that she couldn't.

"But why did you take the others with you?" He whispered.

"I…" Why had she done what she did? It hadn't been on impulse, there had been a reason behind it all.

"They weren't thinking about it, wouldn't have been happy to stay sad as they were about you leaving. And then you asked them all to go with you. Why?" His voice was low and intense.

"They had to grow up too. Jack, I felt like the mother there. That was my role, remember? It was why I was there, the only girl on the island. It was a type of decision that a normal mother would make. I was a in no way an expert in normal home life, but even I knew that those children could not stay on this island being children for the rest of their lives. They also had to grow up, same as I did and I just made sure that they knew to do it." There was something different with his questioning then just curiosity, things that she was missing, connections that she wasn't making.

"You left me alone then." Ana felt cold hearing the hurt in his voice.

"I didn't m… I asked you to come with us!" She burst out remembering how that conversation went.

"I couldn't leave! Surely you understand that. I was the Peter Pan, how could I have left my kingdom?" He asked her bitterly and Ana winced suddenly understanding.

"I didn't, Peter I didn't _think_." Anamaria clasped a hand over her mouth in dawning shock and growing horror, hating the pain in his voice, knowing that she put it there, having just promised herself on everything in the universe that he could trust her and that she would never do anything to hurt him. Nothing like what Barbossa had done. The fact that she had done this long before he had even met Barbossa did nothing to ease the guilt she suddenly felt. She really had left him all alone.

Ana would have boldly told anyone she knew and anyone who asked both before and after the dreams stopped that Peter Pan belonged in Neverland and would stay there for all of time. Yet she had never even thought to think that he wouldn't have been able to leave the island nor that he would ever want to. She had offered him a way out with her and then left with the lost boys thinking that it was all ok because he had refused her gracious offer.

She had taken all of his friends away. Ana closed her eyes now and struggled to remember Peter Pan as he had been, not the boy that she had romanticized and then all but forgotten. She remembered how she had never seen him alone but always in the company of someone else even if it his fairy and if that he the case, then he was looking for human playmates.

In the evening he would sometimes lure a child or two to his very large bed under the guise of talking and playing and then let them fall asleep there. Ana had thought then that when Peter would let them sleep and curl himself into a free corner somewhere on the bed, he was just being nice by letting the boys stay there and not waking them up or too lazy to move them himself. Now she thought that he had done it so that he wouldn't be all alone when he awoke in the middle of the night from another nightmare, as though reassuring himself that there were people there for him. And she had taken that all away.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered knowing that it would never be enough yet still hoping. Tears escaped and slid down her cheeks. No wonder that Jack didn't trust people. Jack Sparrow turned to her and wiped the tears from her cheeks though she had no idea how he could see anything in the dark.

"It's alright." He told her softly and she marveled at the change in his voice. He didn't sound so hurt anymore. More like relived. "You really couldn't have known. I didn't speak up when I could have. Pride, you know. I've always been that way, I always needed people around me all the time. Hate to be alone." He shuddered atthe tmere hought of being alone. "I just needed to know why. Thank you Ana, for telling me."

"I'm so sorry." She whispered again and he silenced her by touching her lips and then leaned over to her for a light kiss.

The sun should rise on the truth. Jack Sparrow thought and the sun happily began her daily trek across the sky.

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meowbooks – thank you. I'm very glad that you couldn't stay away. I feel so special – I don't have the right words either to describe good work. Lol yes, you're right in ur comments, I agree. 8-)

Cal – here is the scene of Jack and Ana talking about the past. I really hope that it lived up to your expectations. Did you like it? I read you're review for chapter seven and then the one for chapter eight wasn't there right away and it was so late I had to go to sleep since I had to be up early the next day and I couldn't read it till late at night. Lol. I love you're reviews!

ellennar – wow I didn't think of it that way but it's a perfect comparison!

J.L. Dexter – wow. Thank you so much for both your observations (those gave me some ideas 8-)) and your suggestions on improving my writing. I use Microsoft word and if it catches grammatical errors it doesn't tell me how to fix them! It's so wonderful that you consider my story a worthwhile read. Thank you, I'm so ecstatic!


	10. Chapter 10

Will avoided Captain Jack for the rest of the day. A part of him realized that this was childish and not helpful behavior, but another part of him couldn't help it. The part of him that had come face to face with his childhood and had no idea how that childhood would react to seeing him again.

Thankfully, Jack and Anamaria stayed submerged deep in the forest for most of the day. Gibbs had gone to check up on them sometime near daybreak and returned with a large smile on his face. He warned the crew to stay away from the waterfall for a while and told a worried Will and Elizabeth that Jack and Ana were fine and just taking their time talking and then went away humming delightedly as though it were him who had orchestrated the entire plan.

Since there was still nothing to do on the island, Will spent most of the day lounging silently on the sand staring at the Black Pearl sitting sadly on the water. Once or twice, he thought that the ship waved her sails at him longingly as though begging him to bring her Captain back to her and Will smiled back sadly in greeting.

Elizabeth tried talking to him a couple of times but seeing how unresponsive he was, left to pursue some more talkative company and Will was left to his own melancholy thoughts. After a while, his thoughts turned to Captain Hook, the pirate Captain who had terrorized Peter Pan and the lost boys the last time they had been on the island. Strangely, as soon as he only began to think about the Captain, he felt as though something in his mind had latched onto the thought and he found himself thinking even more about the evil Captain, about how he looked and how he moved and… Frantically, Will tried to think of something else, but found himself completely unable to change the subject.

"Elizabeth?" He called to his wife, dropping his voice into a quiet, agitated whisper when she approached. "There is something wrong."

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Miles away near the waterfall Ana suddenly stopped in the middle of a discussion and turned the topic to something altogether different.

"Jack, do you remember Captain Hook?" She asked. Jack Sparrow shook his head, completely confused by the sudden change of topic.

"No. Not completely." He answered. "I remember who he was but I can't picture his face in my mind."

"Try." Anamaria told him. "Try and remember what he looked like. Try to remember what he moved like, what he talked like, what his spirit looked like."

Though completely confused by then, Jack dutifully closed his eyes and tried to remember the face of his childhood nemesis. At first, he could remember nothing new but then, Captain Hook's face was crystal clear in his mind, down to every last wrinkle and what he saw, shook him completely.

So absorbed in his shock that Jack did not notice the magic swiftly probing his mind until it was too late and the only indication he had that something had just happened was the burst of magic near the caves on the other side of the island. By the time, he realized what had happened, there was nothing that he could do.

"Ana!" He called in dismay, upset not at her but at himself for not seeing it sooner and the magic that was far more sentient then it was proper for magic to be. Ana herself sat blinking slowly as though coming out of a deep sleep.

"Tinkerbell, is this island self aware at all? Magic is meant to be used, not the other way around!" He asked into the empty air, knowing that his fairy would be there.

Tinkerbell shrugged helplessly. "When this island was made, we packed so much magic into such a small place. So much time has passed since then. The magic, it has no where to go, nothing to do. Sometimes… sometimes we see something, things that shouldn't have happened without outside influence. It's as though the island itself is doing it. As though it's alive."

"It just revived Captain Hook!" Jack cried. "Did you catch that? He was dead. Twice!"

"It's the order of things." Tink told him. "The way things have always been. There is the chosen one, brought to the island. Sometimes the child wanted to stay here by himself, exploring, having fun by himself. Other times, the child wanted a friend or two and adventure. So we fell into two patterns. If the child was the first type, we basically left him or her alone to have fun by himself. If the child was the second type, we interfered frequently, brought other children over to Neverland, did things to keep him interested and happy. One of the things we did was bring someone who would be an enemy to the child. Someone he could fight and win against. You were the second type and so we brought Captain Hook over from the real world."

"But he died! You couldn't have brought him here the same way that you brought us. He isn't alive!"

"Neverland is capable of many things… I never thought… but…" Tink murmured.

Jack closed his eyes then opened him again. "Can I get rid of him just by wishing it?" He asked the fairy who shook her head sadly.

"No. Captain Hook was brought here by Neverland itself to keep to a predetermined order. The island will fight your magic for dominance in this." Tink fluttered her wings nervously, unable to explain herself properly.

"So I have to kill him."

"Yes."

"Fine." Jack said determinately and turned away from his fairy effectively ending the conversation, turning back to his first mate who was staring at the fairy confusion in her eyes.

"Tinkerbell?" She whispered. "You used to be smaller."

"It's in the way that Peter views the world." Tinkerbell told the girl. "It's good to see you."

Ana nodded, still confused and then turned to the Jack neither noticing the fairy who had disappeared as silently as she had come.

"What was that all about?" She asked. "What happened Jack?"

"Do you remember asking me to remember Captain Hook?" Jack Sparrow asked.

"No. Well, yes but very vaguely. Like a dream. What happened?" She asked again, realizing that there was something that she was missing.

"Captain Hook is back." Jack revealed.

"You defeated him before."

"I can defeat him again. That isn't the problem. The problem is in who he is."

"Who is he?" Ana whispered, for some reason afraid of the answer.

"Barbossa." Came the soft, earth shattering answer.

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Author's note - heya, faithful readers. lol - I was waiting for 30 reviews before I posted again but I see that that one is just not going to happen. lol. soon.

On a different note, I hope you like this chapter. There will be more action and adventure and emotion confrontations later. (just a bit later) happy reading!

Cal - I am going to start replying to you're reviews as soon as I read them cus I'm sure that I wanted to answer things but didn't and now I'm so tired... I hope you like this!


	11. Chapter 11

DarkoBender – Wow, you have no idea how totally ecstatic I am that you have read my story. I love your stories and as you can tell, am following both of them closely. I am so happy that you like mine. Thank you! And don't feel bad about not having seen it before. A lot of people didn't. Then Cal thankfully told some people.

Cal – no, no writer's block – yet. 8-) Oh dear, what if Tink was there? Lol, but I think that she just sort of hears her name or feels whenever she is being called and then comes. Have fun reading!

meowbooks – Wow! **THAT **is a WOUNDERFUL summery. Wow. Thank you for sharing that with me. I'm blown away at good (amazing!) summery. 8-)

Onto the story…

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When Jack and Anamaria came back out onto the beach, Will was the first one rushing out to greet them. He still didn't know what had happened or why he had been unable to stop thinking about Captain Hook but he was certain that it was not good.

Captain Jack Sparrow's voice rose about the normal bustle around the burnt out pit of last night's fire, calling everyone to attention.

"I want you all to listen up." Jack called and Will didn't have any more opportunity to go to his side. "We are not the only ones here on this island. There is another man here. We can't be sure yet if he has a crew with him or not but many of you might recognize him. He will look like Barbossa. The same one that I killed at Isle de Muierta. Be very careful of him, he may act like the Barbossa we know but he might not. I suggest that you all stick to groups and don't go wondering out alone."

After the Captain finished talking, the crew was shocked into utter silence for a few moments and then they all started talking. The topic of conversation surprised and somewhat confused Jack. Oddly, they were all talking about how glad they were that Barbossa was back so that they could now kill him again and with their own hands for what he did to their Captain. Captain Jack Sparrow blinked at them in confusion. He had never seen such a loyal crew in his life.

Leaving his loyal crew on the beach, grumbling about his orders that would prevent them from taking revenge on the traitor, Jack headed back to the big tree. Where he really wanted to go was back to the Black Pearl, to feel her rocking with the waves under his feet, wind playing in his hair as he rested his eyes far onto the horizon. Since he couldn't go there, going back to the Mother Tree seemed like the best option.

Jack had stayed awake the entire night before and even though talking to Ana had been wonderful and he was glad that he had finally told everyone the truth, his body needed to sleep and if he wanted piece and quiet, then that would be the only place to get it.

"Jack?" A soft, hesitant voice stopped Jack Sparrow in the middle of climbing. He stopped and turned to face the blacksmith that had followed him here.

Will had seen Jack leave the beach and head somewhere with purposeful though swaying steps and had decided to follow him. Nothing had felt quiet like it fit, since he had learned that Jack Sparrow was Peter Pan. He had known that his father had been Jack's friend perhaps his only friend before he was killed and he considered himself something like an extension of his father. He genuinely liked and admired Jack but sometimes, ever since he had found out who his father had been to the Captain, it felt like the only reason that the pirate had taken any interest in the blacksmith was because of who his father was.

But now… now he had his own merit and in his own eyes, it wasn't a good one. Jack hadn't acted any different towards him since coming to the island but Will felt as though his world had been turned upside down.

"Is that… is that the tree?" Will asked quietly, unsure of where to start. Yes, this was Jack Sparrow, the most feared pirate in the Caribbean but this was also Peter Pan, the best friend that Will had thought was gone forever.

Captain Jack Sparrow nodded. He had been going to take a nap, secretly terrified of his upcoming talk with Will Turner, trying without conscious thought to avoid him for as long as possible. Fortunately, that didn't work.

"Come on." He motioned to Will, telling the other to follow after him. Inside, Will stood spellbound at the entrance for a few long moments. It looked exactly like he remembered it. Jack crossed the room and sat cross legged on the big bed that Peter Pan had slept in, facing Will who then stepped inside and sat down in another bed.

Then there was silence. Frustrated, Will screamed at himself to say something, anything. After all they had to start somewhere. But he couldn't seem to figure out where that somewhere was. He had no idea what to say.

"I'm sorry." He finally offered lamely, hoping that that would lead somewhere, even Jack yelling at him, anything but the awful silence.

Jack blinked at Will's simple statement and suddenly it all came rushing back. The pain, the anger, the betrayal. The way he felt watching the lost boys walk happily off of the island and never look back.

"Why did you leave?" He whispered, hoping that his voice didn't sound as hurt as he felt, hoping desperately that the island wouldn't pick up on his less then happy feelings.

He had thought that he was over it, that with Anamaria's admission he got over the pain and moved on but Will was someone else. His leaving had hurt because he had been his only real friend.

Ironic really that the only real friends he had had for such a long time were from the same family, father and son.

Will didn't know why he had left. He remembered getting caught up in the moment, sharing he laughter and the happiness and seeing Peter's determination to remain behind. He remembered looking at Peter and not really knowing if he was recognized, if his friend knew who he was. He remembered thinking of home and remembering his father and his mother and wanting to visit them.

"I was stupid." He confessed. "I wasn't thinking. I got caught up in the moment. You were like our leader by then. A leader that we could leave. I didn't know if you even recognized me most of the time."

"It was the magic. It was supposed to keep me happy and it didn't work." Jack was nodding sadly when he suddenly sat up, completely awake, mind working feverishly. "Why would the magic misfire in that particular way Will?" He asked his friend. "Half of the time I couldn't remember any normal day to day things but any slight grievance that happened, the feelings seemed too strong. If the magic wasn't working couldn't the island have just stopped trying?"

"You think that it did that on purpose?" Will asked. What Jack was talking about seemed like utter nonsense but it felt right and true in a way that nothing so evil should. Jack nodded then shook his head.

"I hope not." He sighed. "Or we have so many more and bigger problems then just Barbossa on our trail."

"Jack," Will said softly, back to the topic at hand. "I'm sorry I left you alone here. I… I'm sorry." There was nothing else to say.

"I forgive you." Jack whispered back. It would have been futile to pretend that Will leaving hadn't hurt him, that he hadn't felt betrayed but there was no reason to hold such a grudge against his best friend.

While he had still thought that his time in Neverland had been a dream, it made no sense to feel betrayed by something that wasn't real. And when he had finally realized that it was Will… They had been just children then. Ten, eleven, twelve years old. Whatever did they know? For all he knew, he might have done the same. Things were confusing at that age. If anyone was to blame, Jack could safely blame the Island.

What was done was done, and Jack Sparrow found that all he had really wanted was to hear the explanations from the mouths of his friends, make his peace with all of them and forget that it had ever happened. All he had ever truly wanted was his childhood friends back in his life.

With a smile, Jack stretched and lay back on the bed, closing his eyes in anticipation of a delicious nap.

"G'night mate." He murmured happily, motioning vaguely to another bed for Will to stretch out on, without waiting to see if Will had indeed followed his suggestion, before falling back in the soft embrace of sleep.

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Please, Please, Please Review!


	12. Chapter 12

He remembered the pain. A sudden sharp flash of agony near his heart and then the cold. Cold worse then he had ever felt before. The certainty that he was going to die and the stubborn pride that he had still managed to deprive Jack Sparrow of his ship for ten whole years.

The memories assaulted him abruptly out of the darkness he had fallen into. Long forgotten memories that he now watched as though experiencing for the first time. A fierce storm… a new crew… an island… a child… Peter Pan.

The long forgotten persona came back to him with a vengeance, taking over his control until he was no longer sure of who he was. The only thing that remained the same was a strong dislike for Peter Pan, for Jack Sparrow.

Opening his eyes, he saw that he was lying flat out on his back in a cave. Almost the same one that he had died in but this one was not filled with golden coins and precious treasures and a strange cursed chest. This one was empty save for the constant, steady drip of water somewhere in the distance.

He lifted his hands to his face, wiggled his fingers to be certain and breathed a sigh of relief that he still had both hands. Captain Hook had had only one. Peter Pan had been the cause of that little problem, he remembered.

But it was alright. That would be so much time now to get even and to pay him back double for everything he had done in his life. For cutting off his hand, for foiling every plan he had ever had, for reclaiming the ship that he had rightfully stolen, for killing him.

Whoever he was.

He was back.

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"Ana, have you seen Will?" Elizabeth called to the first mate of the Black Pearl as the other women passed close by her place in the shade of a large tree.

"Last I've seen him, he was heading after Jack into the woods." Anamaria called back still heading away from her before she shrugged and headed back to join Elizabeth in the shade. "Why, did you lose him?" She grinned.

"I don't mind." Elizabeth laughed. "He just kind of vanished without a trace earlier and I wanted to make sure that he didn't get lost or something worse." She confided. Anamaria shook her head.

"Elizabeth, Will probably knows this island the best of all of us besides Jack. He spent almost as much time here as Jack after all."

"Does Jack have any ideas as to what we are all here for and when we can leave?" Elizabeth asked. Ana gasped in mock shock.

"What do you mean? You don't like it here? This is paradise right here. It doesn't get much better then here." Despite the sudden threat of the newly alive Barbossa on the island with them, Anamaria felt alive and happy. It could have been her reconciliation with Jack or the island, a much darker possibility which she hadn't even considered, but she felt happy, lightheaded and playful and didn't mind sharing the mood.

"Evil pirates?" The former Miss Swann asked in a wry but laughing tone of voice. "Don't get me wrong, I like it here. I'm just not sure that I want to face Barbossa again. How did he get here in the first place?" That was what she had been thinking about and had wanted answered ever since Captain Jack Sparrow had made that little announcement hours ago but everyone who knew anything about it had vanished.

"Oh. Alright." Ana nodded and made herself comfortable on the sand, ready to start the story. With all of the excitement they ahd probably forgot to tell the people who hadn't been there, the original story. Now was as good a time as any.

"I'm not sure how much you really know about all of this? You heard about our dreams and what Jack said but you don't know what really happened. Did Will tell you?" When Elizabeth shook her head no, Anamaria nodded as though she already expected this and continued.

"I'll tell it through my eyes just because I know that best." She said with a smile. "I was young, about nine or ten when the dreams started. They only came at night, every night. In these dreams I was someone else. A white girl with two younger brothers, even though in real life I never had any siblings.

In my dreams, a boy came to me and took me to a place called Neverland. This island. The island then was mostly the same then as it is now. There were fairies and mermaids and Indians. There was also Captain Hook.

Peter Pan lived here with a bunch of boys that he called the Lost Boys. They lived here without adult supervision, just having fun. One adventure after another. One of the adventures they had was fighting with Captain Hook.

The way I understood it, Captain Hook complete with crew and ship arrived at Neverland shortly after all of the Lost Boys arrived. Peter fought Captain Hook regularly and on one of those occasions, he cut off the Captain's hand so that the other had to have a hook made for him and came to be known as Captain Hook.

When I got here, we had some adventures, defeated Captain Hook and then I left taking all of the Lost Boys with me. That's when the dreams stopped." Ana finished softly.

"Oh. I never imagined…" Elizabeth trailed off. "I know that I've said it before, but this is incredible. Why did you leave?" She asked and then seeing Ana almost flinch and avert her eyes she quickly continued. "No, don't answer that. I'm sorry, I see that I've said something wrong. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." The first mate flashed Elizabeth an easy smile. "It's just something… personal. I left because I couldn't stay a child forever." Elizabeth nodded empathetically. Regardless of how and in what circumstances, she also remembered making the conscious decision to grow up and become an adult as apposed to staying a child for longer.

"I know how that one feels." She offered.

"To grow up?" Ana asked.

"To decide to. Yes. It's hard sometimes no matter where it takes place I suppose."

"I suppose." Ana echoed making her decision.

She had spent so much of her life aboard ships of all kinds, she had naturally grown up mostly amongst men. So a good portion of her friends had always been men to the point that she hardly knew how to relate to someone who was a women and one that was not a pirate at that. But maybe she could start right here.

Elizabeth was a good person to have as a friend, Anamaria decided. She was a good listener and calm in a crisis and she was right there. A little reserved and private by nature, there really was no reason to not take this open opportunity right before her.

"It's just that I took everyone else and left Jack here all alone when he couldn't leave himself." Ana said. Elizabeth could see that the first mate had come to a decision on something and she was overjoyed that the other woman was finally confiding in her. She had long ago wanted Ana to consider her a friend and she was really happy that it had finally happened. It was great to have another woman to talk to freely on the ship and she really enjoyed talking to the first mate of the Black Pearl.

"I think… I think that that was a situation no one could possibly have won." Elizabeth said slowly. "You couldn't have stayed and he couldn't have left. You talked to him about this?" She asked remembering the conversation that the Captain and the first mate had been on the verge of having when Gibbs had pulled her away form the waterfall.

"Yes. We talked. He told me it was alright. It's just that I know that I hurt him and I don't even know what I could have done differently and I really hate hurting him at all." Ana sighed.

"You love him?"

"I do. I think that I loved him forever. As soon as I met him in my dreamswhen I was achild. He took me to Neverland and I fell in love with him and… Captain Hook told me that he couldn't love anyone because of what he was. Because he was Peter Pan, a child forever. I think that I believed him."

"And you left."

"And I left."

"Ana," Elizabeth called to her, forcing the other women to look back the lady. "Trust me, I know this form experience. If you love him, if he loves you, then nothing else matters. You might both make mistakes and hurt each other because we are all human but you will always forgive each other too because you love one another and can't live without the other and that's the one thing that matters. It's the future you should look at not the past." Ana paused in all movement and studied her new friend for a long speculative moment.

"How did you get so smart?" She asked, almost completely bewildered.

"Getting married will do that to you." Elizabeth managed to say sombrely with a strait face before the two ladies suddenly burst out laughing.

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Author's note: 40 reviews! 40 REVIEWS! 40 REVIEWS! I can't believe it.WOW! I am so amazed and ecstatic. THANK YOU to all my wonderful reviewers!

Holliday1081 - Don't worry about not reviewing regularly. I know you also have your own stories to write which are amazing so it can be hard sometimes. I'm just so happy to know that you're still reading and enjoying. Thank you for telling me that my story is 'progressing fabulously!'. I am so happy to hear that. More eerie foreboding feelings coming up but they'll soon be explained if not resolved. 8-) Wow! I'm getting new ideas just reading your reviews. Thank you! Ch 11, I was so worried about the relationship sounding right and not too sappy or fake as you put it. I am so happy that I succeeded.

DarkoBender – Thank you1 I'm glad we like each other's stuff. I'm happy u feel flattered. I am eagerly awaiting more updates from u. 8-) I'm also wondering what's going to happen with Hook. Lol We'll see.

Bwitched – thank you. Yes, I had to do that too. Wait, I mean could get annoying.

Cal – heya! Loved ur review as usual. I'm so sorry. No more exclusive jack/ana scenes for just a few chapters. Bear with me k? I need to get the other relationships and revelations out there. ch 14 will have some hopefully. Yes that's the idea. Maybe they should put the ship on the island. Hmm… that may happen yet. Lol. I'm so happy that you read my other story even if it had no ana in it. Thank you so much.

Meowbooks – I LOVED the dialogue that you wrote. So sweet, so true. Thank you for sharing.

Please, please, please review!


	13. Chapter 13

It would have been a women she would have chosen to be had she ever been given the choice. A woman; beautiful, cunning and deadly.

She knew intellectually that her entire existence was something of a fluke, something like a mistake. She was never supposed to be alive. But she understood so much more then they thought, years of listening to every conversation taking place within her hearing range had done that. And everything was within her range.

She thought, with little remorse but much more malicious satisfaction, that it was probably a side effect of having so much magic gather together in one place. The magic of the entire world. With no one using it, it had started infecting, affecting everything around it. The trees, the grass, permeating the very air of the island and seeping deeper into her core, filling her so completely…

And then she awoke.

Her awakening was slow and gradual. Silently watching and waiting, bidding her time, taking stock of what and who she was. Then came the realization that all of this was hers. She was the island, the island was her and everything on the island was hers. It was then she decided who she was, who she wanted to be and what she wanted to have.

She came to dread the steady, lengthy visits of the Chosen children. Hating the sound of their laughter, their free and easy movement as they flew effortlessly through the air. Hating the fact that she was dependant on these mere children to survive. And yet, she could not move, could not talk. She could only watch and wait. The plan was not yet ready; the time had not yet come.

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Captain Jack Sparrow yawned and stretched lazily. He couldn't remember the last time that he had had such a delicious nap. He felt rested and refreshed. Everything was perfect. There was absolutely nothing wrong in the world.

He glanced around the room and saw Will Turner still stretched out on another bed, still fast asleep.

Jack sat up, fighting a strong urge to fly up to the ceiling crowing loudly. He shook his head, reminding himself that he wanted Will to rest. After all it was Jack himself who had kept the boy up half the night so why shouldn't he rest when he had the chance. Besides which, he didn't even know how to fly! So why in the world was he even thinking these things?

But he felt excited and energetic; shouldn't he be able to share this mood with everyone else? Who really cared about anyone else? All that mattered was his own happiness. Will could rest any time. This was his island, his domain, here, he could do whatever he wanted and worry about no one else. The rest of them were just jealous…

Jack shook his head again, rather strongly this time. There was something wrong with this entire situation. While he was no stranger to feeling excited and happy, this was not right. This wasn't him, these feelings were not his.

Having finally come to this conclusion, Jack Sparrow could now feel the foreign presence on his mind.

_What do you think you're doing?_ He asked silently. _Why do you do this? Who are you?_

He thought that he could hear an echo of clear, ringing feminine laughter as the presence slid away from his mind leaving it all his again.

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_You want to defeat Peter Pan. You want to once and for all get rid of Captain Jack Sparrow._ A voice whispered into his mind. _I want you to succeed._

"What?" Barbossa looked around at the trees in the midst of which he stood but could see no one other then himself. "Who are you?"

_An ally._ The unknown voice stated simply. _You are here for a reason Captain Hook, Captain Barbossa. No matter who you are, you are here to defeat the one known as Peter Pan. Are you willing?_

"Yes." He didn't know why or how or what the catch to this whole setup was but he was alive again and after being dead it felt wonderful. He wanted to kill Captain Jack Sparrow and if this mysterious voice was going to give him the opportunity to do just that, he wouldn't look his gift horse in the mouth. For now.

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Will Turner awoke with the strongest feeling of someone watching him. Startled, he jumped up, looking around for the danger, then grabbed his dizzy head and looked reproachfully at Jack who had turned out to be the culprit.

"Sorry mate." Captain Jack Sparrow grinned at him. "We've got a bit of a problem.

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Anamaria suddenly paused mid laugh and pointed to a thick canopy of trees a few feet away.

"There they are." She told Elizabeth looking at the two figures coming out onto the beach, one swaying slightly from side to side. Definitely Captain Jack Sparrow. Will caught sight of them first and said something to Jack pointing out the two girls on the sand and Jack nodded, heading in another direction towards where the other crew members were spread out all over the beach.

Minutes later they were all gathered together in the circle in the shade in a bizarre recreation of the night before. Captain Jack Sparrow, the Turners, Gibbs and Anamaria. And still, the only one that knew the whole story or at least more then the rest was Jack.

"We have a problem." He repeated the words said earlier to Will. "There is something wrong with this island. It's not only the fact that it just somehow brought Barbossa back to life." Jack paused, not really knowing how to put into words something that he did not really understand himself.

"There is magic here, right? The magic of the entire world squeezed into one little island. The magical creatures use some of the magic and I am bonded to it as well so that I can use a portion too. The way Isee it, there are certain things that the magic that is bonded to me supposed to do. One of those things was to erase my bad memories and only leave the good ones. The problem is that a lot of the time it did the opposite. I didn't realize this before but this time, on three occasions I felt someone or something in my mind and it wasn't the usual magic that's part of the bond. This is something foreign and I'm not at all sure of what it wants."

"What was it trying to do?" Ana asked, worried. She didn't understand a lot of what was going on on the island but if it was attacking Jack then it couldn't be a good thing.

"It tried to erase my memories, take over my mind and the second time was when it went fishing for the memories of Barbossa and Captain Hook in my mind." Jack said.

"In order to resurrect him."

"Yes."

"Talking about Barbossa, I've put up guards to surround our camp from the inland." Gibbs informed him. "We figure that he's been resurrected without a ship handy, so he'll be on foot and the guards will let us know if he gets close."

"Thank you." Jack nodded at his quartermaster gratefully.

"We'll wait it out, see what happens on both subjects. I just wanted you to know. Meeting adjourned." He grinned at his crewmates and flopped onto his back on the ground staring at the pretty clouds in the sky.

The others continued on to some inane topic, talking friendlily amongst each other but Jack didn't enter the conversation. Instead he took the time to turn and look at his ship, calmly floating in the water. Soon, he thought, knowing that his ship would hear him and understand. Soon.

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Please, please, please review!


	14. Chapter 14

Captain Hook did not want to bid his time though he knew that that would have been the smart thing to do. He should have been sitting in his cave, planning his next maneuver carefully but he found that most of his patience had deserted him upon his resurrection. Or maybe it was upon his death.

Barbossa wanted to destroy Jack Sparrow completely; body, mind and soul. That compulsion had existed when he had been Captain Hook and seemed to only have tripled since then. The truth was that he could barely focus on anything apart from his need to rid the world of his nemesis.

Some part of him realized that this was wrong, it had always been wrong. Jack Sparrow was young enough to be his son, his younger in so many ways. He should have been taking him under his wing and teaching the boy, not delighting in his downfall. Only it didn't work that way.

He remember the way that Jack had looked that night that Barbossa had finally taken the Pearl away from him. And he remembered also, the first time that he had ever laid eyes on Captain Jack Sparrow.

He remembered seeing the young Captain from a distance and being in awe of him. Being amazed at a child that was self assured as he had never been at that age, crazy enough to undertake such an arduous journey. He had signed himself and his crew to this boy almost unthinkingly, only knowing that this was something that he must do. Then Barossa had met, spoken with the cocky young Captain and all previous plans flew out the window.

The new plan became to kill Jack and take the Black Pearl for himself. A day later, the plan changed again. Without a conscious thought or awareness of it, the goal became the utter destruction of Captain Jack Sparrow. And even having no idea of how he had that knowledge, yet unquestioning of the truth, he knew exactly how to hurt the boy in the most painful way. He knew that nothing would kill Jack more then loneliness. Even on the ship, during their brief two day journey, he had hated being alone.

Jack Sparrow had refused to give him the bearings to the treasure and it had taken Barbossa another long day to get the directions and by that time his plan was ready to be carried out.

He remembered now and relished the moment that Jack realized what was happening. The instant where the confusion and bewilderment of sleep was replaced by not quite hidden fast enough terror. The eyes were the windows to the soul.

The memories were better then food for his weary soul, revitalizing him better then a thousand rich and expensive meals could have.

He remembered again those same eyes awash in tears, too stubborn, too proud to let them fall. He heard once more the usually slurred voice shake before the former Captain got himself under firm control and stared around himself one last time, not at the crew that had betrayed him but at the ship he stood on as though he were to be leaving a part of his soul behind. And while the intellectual part of Barbossa pondered this calmly, he gave the firm orders to sail with a smile on his lips for the first time since the voyage began.

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He looked as though he were resting calmly but his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. There was only a certain amount of time that one may spend resting in a few days after all. It had started shortly after he had tuned out the main conversation and hadn't stopped since.

The beached crew of the Black Pearl had long ago decided that they were very close to being out of their minds with boredom. Somebody had started a game of catch using a coconut from their daily stash of food and everybody else joined in. Strangely, the sounds of the game only made his thoughts run even faster. He need to be on his ship, on the water. Jack could hear her call to him, pleading with him to come back and he thought that it was much past time that he fulfilled her request. He had to go back, if only for a little while.

"I'm going back to the Pearl." Captain Jack Sparrow swayed over to his entertained crew. Not even bothering to wait for a response, he headed a bit unsteadily to the row boats left on the shore.

"What? Jack are you daft? You can't just leave!" Anamaria burst out.

"Yes, and why not?" Jack asked her still moving away, pushing the small boat further into the water. "Neverland won't let me leave completely, I'll be back." He didn't ask if anyone wanted to come. He didn't know why but this felt like something that he had to do alone. Like there was something that the Pearl wanted to show him but didn't want a huge audience for. Ana shook her head as she moved foreword to join him. The resolute look on her face stopped any of his upcoming objections.

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She lifted her body out of the water, marveling at it with childhood wonder. Surprisingly, it hadn't taken much effort to dream up this new body of hers. It wasn't a real body of coarse, not one made of flesh and blood. She was more like a corporeal ghost then a real person, but she had never been human to begin with and she for the first time in her existence she had a shape, a sort of avatar and she was a women now, just as she had wonted to be.

Things were moving swiftly now, plans implemented into action.

She had known that he was the one the moment that the child had first stepped foot on her shore. The perfect child, the one she had been waiting for, the one that she could use to bring her glorious plan into completion. It hadn't been that much of a plan then, but he had definitely been the central core around which everything revolved.

She had underestimated him as well. Times and times again, she was certain that the child had sensed her, had known her and felt her inside of his mind when she had thought herself undetectable. It was almost funny that now that he finally fully sensed her that it mattered no longer. He was hers even though he didn't know it yet. Struggling against her power would accomplish nothing.

In her mind's eye, she pictured the pretty clothes that she had seen others wear in his mind and carefully applied the clothes to herself. If humans covered themselves for whatever reasons they had, then she would do so as well. Smiling softly, she walked fully dressed yet barefoot out into the clearing.

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"What did you want to tell me?" Captain Jack Sparrow whispered running a hand across the railing of his beloved ship. She practically gleamed in the sunlight, sails flapping to a happy song that only she could hear. He didn't have a very long time, he knew that. Even now, he could hear the island calling him back, the sudden, unnatural winds rocking the Pearl closer to shore then she wanted to be. But he didn't want to go back yet.

"What is it that I need to know?" He asked again. Closing his eyes, he leaned against the wheel and relaxed as he had done countless of times in the past. This was the fastest way to get the answers he needed, to see out of her eyes and allow her to tell him her story in her own way.

He wasn't prepared for the white mist that suddenly assaulted his senses. Opening his eyes in the real world didn't help for he was no longer fully there. Confused, Jack looked around but saw nothing else besides for him in the thick fog.

"Don't be frightened Captain." A soft voice said in front of him and a young girl stepped out of the mist. An imaginary wind, which did nothing for the fog, played with her blond sun-kissed hair as she came closer to him.

"Hello." Jack whispered suddenly knowing exactly who she was, no introductions necessary.

"It's a pleasure and an honor to serve under you Captain Sparrow. I'm glad that I finally get to meet you." The Black Pearl told him with a wide happy smile.

"I'm so sorry for Barbossa." Jack whispered, still not entirely convinced that all this was actually happening. Though he had thought about it countless of time, he had never actually expected to have this chance, to be able to talk to his beloved ship face to face as men could to each other. The girl in front of him shook her head empathically reaching up to touch Captain Jack's cheek.

"Don't blame yourself." She said softly. "I heard you when you talked to me every night. I am only glad that I am back with you now. At last." They stood that way, disturbed only by a light breathe of wind. "I wish I could talk to you like this forever." Then her entire demeanor changed and her hand dropped down to her side.

"Captain, I don't have much time. She must not know that I can do this, that I can talk to you like this."

"Who? Neverland?" He asked.

"Yes. I can sense her through my bond to you. She wants to posses you Captain, to take you over completely."

"She knew my mind since I was a child." Jack told her. "How can I stop her?"

"You are tied to the island and given the ability to use magic. But the other creatures of this island can use the magic as well. The island itself, now awake, can use the magic against you. All this you know. This doesn't answer your question Captain, nor does this help you." The Black Pearl smiled ruefully.

"All I know is that magic is a tool. One that you wield the best out of all of them because you are so intrinsically bound to it but at the same time an outsider, able to see the whole picture as it is. And you are so much stronger then you give yourself credit for." She reached up again and this time her feather light touch rested on his shoulder.

"You give them strength and life and they are meant to give you happiness. I wish I could stand here and talk to you like this forever." Her voice, repeating her earlier words dropped to an even lower octave, the wind stealing away her words so that he had to strain to catch them. "Close your eyes Captain, it's time to awaken."

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Heya to my dear reviewers. I'm so sorry that this took so long. Real life decided to take over for a bit and judging by the lack of updates from other ppl it's not only me. Hope you like this chapter.

Did everyone read ch 12? i LIKE ch 12. but that's what i get for posting 2 chapters together. i wanted to be nice. learned my lesson now! lol.

I wish I could write more right now and answer everyone but I'm in such a hurry. Please continue reviewing.

Cal - I only got a review for ch 13, did you read ch 12?

Thank you so much to meowbooks, DarkoBender, cal, NA

Ohoho - I'm sorry, if you don't like it, why are you reading it? And if u want a reply to ur review then leave me an address I can get back to u at. It's my imagination and I like it, how in the world is u telling me u don't constructive criticism?


	15. Chapter 15

His name was Peter and by some ironic sense of humor that she hadn't been aware of possessing, she started with him first. The boy was young yet but not as young as the real Peter had been when he had first set foot on her shores. Luring him away from the communal game was laughingly simple, the child had no barriers in his mind. It had startled her at first, she had ever only known one mind well before and the thought of people whose minds did not build barriers to keep intruders out confused and fascinated her, opening the world up to so many new, wonderful possibilities.

In the wide, thick canopy of trees, she revealed herself to him. To her pleasure, she found that she had chosen her body well. The child stared at her in rapt wonder, mouth half open to scream a warning to the rest of the crew yet the words all but forgotten.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." She murmured to him. Slowly, tentatively at first and then firmly as she found no resistance and confidence surged, she reached into his mind layer by layer, and bound him to herself as she had never been able to do to the real Peter Pan.

That done, she had to hurry now, the only part of her brilliant plan that she disliked. It had taken centuries of planning to get to this point; she almost detested harried action.

She let the boy go, erasing the memory of herself from his mind, replacing it with some other mundane nonsense and watched with an small eager smile on her face as he bounced back towards the shore. He would call the others.

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It was time to go. The sun moved cautiously across the sky, gently hinting at the calmly passing time. Anamaria had grown bored with his strange unresponsive state of mind and had gone to explore the Captain's Cabin, an activity that always promised at least a few hours of comfortably satiated curiosity. The dilemma was that Jack didn't want to go back. The island called to him pulling and pushing from all directions, intensifying to a very real ache but Captain Jack Sparrow, out of pure principle wanted to see how long he could resist her call.

Turning around, he could feel Ana start restlessly behind him. She didn't have his connections to the island but even she could feel that something angry was slowly moving towards them. Fine. If there was one thing that Jack was in all certainty not going to do was risk his ship for the sake of curiosity.

"Ana, it's time to go!" He called to his first mate over his shoulder as he jumped over the railing and into the small boat. In minutes, they were underway. Ana looked at her Captain curiously as he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"She's gone for now." Jack told her. "Neverland was calling me back but she is somewhere else now. You felt something earlier? That was Neverland."

"Neverland?" Ana asked confusedly. "I thought that she didn't want to kill you."

"Oh that wasn't a death threat." Jack told her calmly.

"Well it felt like one." She shuddered just remembering the anger she felt roiling about her, unseen.

"Neverland is just… possessive I think. The Black Pearl thinks that she wants my power over her. To use me as a conduit to be free." Jack tried to put his new knowledge into words.

"That can't be good." An murmured not at all sure at how to reply. Death threats on her Captain's life where never anything new but it had never happened to come from a magical mythical island. "Wait… the Black Pearl told you?" She gasped in surprise and confusion as she finally managed to grasp the meaning behind his words. Jack grinned.

"It was wonderful Ana." The childlike joy on his face was beautiful to look it. _This was why he was Peter Pan in the first place. _Ana decided in a daze. "We stood there and she talked to me just like I could talk to you, face to face. Finally…" His voice trailed off as he slipped into his recollections and Ana let him go. His joy was just so breathtaking to watch.

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_The first time he had opened his eyes and found himself on a strange island, he had been confused but not frightened. It had been just another adventure he was going on, this time in his dreams. When he had woken up in his own bed in England the next morning, it had come like something of a big surprise. The dream had seemed so real… That day he couldn't wait to go back to sleep once again. His parents were pleasantly surprised by their usually boisterous son's new found compliance for the house rules of proper bed times. Gradually, the novelty wore off as they grew more and more worried. No healthy child of that age should have been sleeping so much. Their son was sleeping more and more for longer periods of time and nothing they did could wake him out of his unnatural sleep. _

_He remembered the first time he saw the adult. One of the only few adults on the island and in his childish eyes, the only real one. He approached him as only a child grown up and coached in London etiquette could. Fearless and full of cautious politeness. _

_The man looked to be about the same age as his father and at Peter's first glance, he stood on deck of a beautiful ship, looking around himself in something akin to horror. His eyes, cold even at the distance, gazed over the island and froze when they rested upon the boy. The child was still dressed as he remembered being dressed at home, his clothes still clean if a little rumpled. He hadn't been there long at all._

"_Come here boy." The Captain ordered briskly and the boy shrugged elaborately before obeying the command. He could see no reason not to go. The child had always been told to obey his elders, his lesson drilled consistently into his head and there seemed to not be any harm in it at all. Nothing on this island had hurt him yet even if the man did scare him slightly in a way that he could not yet understand. Carefully, Peter walked up the ramp to stand in front of the older man._

"_What's your name boy?" The Captain asked him roughly._

"_Peter."_

"_Peter _what_?" He was all saccharine sweetness but the child was not young enough to miss the strands of mocking frustration in his voice._

"_Peter Pan." The boy answered boldly as though daring the man to contradict. The men though, couldn't have cared less._

"_Take me to the adults on this island." The Captain ordered in a way that left no room for argument._

"_There are no adults." The insolent boy in front of him grinned. "It's just me and the fairies and the Indians. Oh and the crocodile…" Here, Peter looked around as though looking for said crocodile to come out of the water at any minute. _

_Seeing red, the Captain slapped the boy, hard. The child reeled, falling backwards onto the deck, one hand holding his bruised cheek, eyes flashing with anger and confusion. The older man smiled down at him, sure that the boy had been properly cowered by his proper show of authority. The child though, just glared back._

"_You have no right to hit me." There were no traces of tears in his eyes, he was just simply angry. _

_Later, after the fact, Peter could not have said what made him talk back to the Captain in that way rather then just take his though undeserved punished in silence as a child of his age and stature in life aught to have done. It had been a split second decision. A yet unknown, undiscovered power from somewhere deep inside of him had surged through his body and mind as he stood in front of the Captain, letting him know that here, on this island, they weren't elder and child but equals. Completely equal with the same right to power, to failure and to success. Someone should have told the only real adult on the island; _some people are more equal then others.

"_You've got no right to lie to your elders boy!" The Captain countered, smiling smugly._

"_My name is Peter." The boy stated firmly, getting up, off of the floor. He walked slowly, deliberately back to the railing and the plank of the ship. As though he owned the place. The Captain seethed._

"_You're silly rules don't matter here." The boy continued, running a hand down the railing of the ship in a way that betrayed a later passion in life. "You will figure it out. My name is Peter Pan. You'd best remember that." Then one jump and he was gone, off of the plank and into the forest so fast that the Captain was sure that the child had flown._

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A/n - k, I've heard scary things about not being able to reply to reviewrs in the chapters anymore. I didn't get such a note.

I'm so sorry that this took so long, I ran into some real life and some writers block and when I finnaly came up with a wounderful chapter, I wrote it up right away. I hope that everyone likes it. There is a line in there that says, 'some people are more equal then others." I don't know if some of you would recognize it, but it's from a book called Animal Farm by George Orwell and I liked that line so much that I'm really happy I found a way to use it in here.

To my wounderful reviewers - thank you for reviewing!

DarkoBender - To reply to every paragrraph you wrote to me; Thank you and no it makes perfect sense, I see what you mean. Thank you so much, it's so wounderful that you like it, I'm so happy. Yes, Thats' the way I see Jack, with the lonliness thing, glad to hear that I'm not the only one.Don't worry about not reviewing every chapter, I'm just glad that you're reading. That note was mostly aimed at Cal who reviews every chapter and somehow missed that one, so I was sure that she hadn't read it. Basicaly, with this answer, I'm saying thank you so much and I'm so flattered and glad that you like my story - to every paragraph in your review. lol. I wonder if you still remember what you reveiewd or if you're going to have to go back now and check to see what you had written there. Happy reading!

Cal - i knew something was up when u didn't review a chapter. i'm so glad that you finally read it and liked it. I'll have more Jack/Ana scenes for you soon. Just not... yet. I'm sorry! Feel free to ramble on my behalf to the "reviewer", it makes me happy to know that there are people willing to defend my work. enjoy this chapter!

Holliday1081 - bad reviewer? who, you? no no woundeful reviewr! thank you for reviewing, and all three chapters! Thank you, I'm so elated that you like it. i hope that you love this chapter just as much.

ellennar - here's more! enjoy!

windwraith - thank you, wow, as far as i knew i was the only one who had that thought that was just so determined to become a full story. so here it is. it's coming along wounderfuly in my humble opinion. lol are you going to write yours?

meowbooks - as usual, I just adore your summeries. yum! about the haai colour, I thought about that, though strangely not for the abvious reason. hm. then I deicided that as a girl, she would have been under the sun her entire life so her hair would have just naturaly gotten lighter. besides doesn't the typical evil have to be all dark? 8-)


	16. Chapter 16

Captain Hook was waiting for them when the small boat reached the shore. He hadn't been there before and they hadn't seen him arrive, he was just there as though he always had been. Anamaria noted that none of the crew seemed to notice him as they continued their silly games as though they weren't the least bit tired, playing for so long under such hot a sun.

"Welcome back Peter Pan." Captain Hook greeted Jack, completely ignoring the first mate by his side.

"Thank you." Jack accepted cordially. There was no actual reason to be hostile to the other Captain. Not yet. Not when the only real reason he had so far was because it was really quite shocking to see ones arch nemesis return from the dead for the second time. It made much more sense to be polite and bid his time and see what he could learn by being nice. After all, everything happened at the opportune moment. There was no need to rush things.

"You'll find that I've learned a lot since our first meeting Peter Pan." Captain Hook sneered.

"Who are you?" Jack asked calmly. He wasn't sure yet if the Captain Hook was Barbossa angle was going to be a problem, but he wanted to know who exactly it was that he was talking to.

"I'm Captain Hook." The older man said. "I'm also Captain Barbossa of that's what you are asking me. Yes Jack, I still remember." He paused for a moment. "Well done Peter. I see I've taught you well."

_His sword flew out of his hand again and the boy crouched on the ground, a foot away from his fallen weapon breathing in harsh pants. Angrily, he glared up at his enemy as though daring him to finish the killing stroke. With a weary sigh, the Captain shook his head._

"_I can't properly enjoy your downfall if you are that inept at this." He told the child in front of him. Picking up the discarded sword, he offered it to him hilt first._

"_Get up." He ordered. "Take the sword. I'm going to teach you how to fight."_

"_Captain!" He heard the surprised gasp from someone in the background and chose to ignore it this one time. He could fully appreciate the fact that it did sound like a strange request coming from him._

"_I'm not going to hurt you boy." He called out irritably when the child made no movement to take the weapon, not helping himself at all by waving around the sword he was still holding. "If we are going to be paired up as rivals without any of our consent, I want a good one. So I'm going to teach you. Take the sword." They had been fighting on and off for weeks now and the only reason that the Captain hadn't been able to kill Peter Pan was because the boy had always flown away before the final stroke. _

_The Captain had realized by then that there was no reason to actively hate the child of the island, but whenever he tried to soft through his thought on the matter calmly and logically, the bloodlust came back stronger then ever, eradicating all common sense. He decided shortly afterwards that thinking on the matter was just too much trouble. _

"Thank you." Jack accepted neutrally, knowing exactly what the older Captain was referring to. He had woken up in the hospital, in the real world with definite knowledge and skills that could not be explained and quickly used it to his advantage by becoming the youngest pirate Captain in the nearest waters.

_That had been shortly before the appearance of the first Lost Boy. As though the island had sensed the albeit strange and fragile bond that their savior was forming with the pirate Captain, the one that was supposed to be his enemy, and set about correcting the problem. The new boy to the island would hate all pirates with a deep passion and would remind Peter of his place, of what he was supposed to be doing. _

_The child just appeared on the shore of the island one bright sunny morning. As any other child his age would do, he looked around with some element of confusion and wonder at his new surroundings for a moment or two; then shrugged and went off into the trees to explore his new playground. _

_It wasn't until evening that Peter Pan had finally left his teacher and gone back to the tree that he had found to be his home and found a new bed inside. Confused, he looked around but nothing else had changed. _

"_Tinkerbell?" He asked his question. The fairy had been his faithful and only companion since he had awoken to find himself on the island and as far as he was concerned, she was the one that held all of the answers to the place._

"_The bed is for a child, a companion for you. A companion your own age." The fairy explained. Peter considered that for a moment._

"_It would be nice to have a mate to fight against The Captain." He said. "Where is this boy?" _

"_Outside. Discovering Neverland. He hasn't found the tree yet." She explained. "Go look for him Peter, I'll get you both some food from the Indians." Food from the Indians was always unusual; interesting and delicious, a treat to welcome the new boy to his new home. _

_To his credit, the new boy didn't seem very startled when he turned around to find another boy hovering in the air above him. He took it all in stride, as one in a dream would._

"_I'm Peter Pan. Who're you?" Peter asked, landing on both feet on the ground right in front of the boy. The new boy thought about this for a moment._

"_Slightly." He finally said confidently, as though daring Peter to contradict him and tell him that Slightly was in fact not a name and ask for his real one. Peter did neither of those things. He nodded his acknowledgement seriously, then looked Slightly up and down as though looking for something special. _

"_I live in a big tree, that way." Peter pointed vaguely in some direction behind him. "There is a bed all ready for you." He turned around and began heading away, this time on foot. "Tink is getting some food for us."_

"_Who is Tink?" Slightly asked curiously._

"_She's my fairy." Peter said this as though it was the most natural thing in the world and Slightly looked startled for a moment before accepting that new fact. On the other hand, he had just seen his new friend fly so maybe fairies were not such a big stretch. _

"_How do you feel about pirates?" Peter asked calmly as they continued walking. "We've got a few of them in a big ship in the cove. I go fight them sometimes."_

"_Wicked!" Slightly exclaimed. "I hate pirates. Can I come with you next time and we'll fight them together?" He asked excitedly. And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship._

_For Slightly, hating pirates was natural. He still remembered the world outside of his dreams and pirates there were not held in high regard. And even though his mother had never been that forceful in her negative opinions, choosing instead to talk of them rather neutrally, a child of any age was much too easily influenced by his other elders and peers with whom he spent most of his days. Anyone else would be so jealous of him for a chance like this. A chance to actually fight the pirates that one could only talk and fantasize about. _

_The next day Peter attacked. The Captain was always ready; his reality was always full of swordfights and bloodshed. His eyes held only glee as he attacked the child right back. His ever resourceful mind noticed how much his enemy had improved, how much he still had to learn. Noticed the new child standing curiously off to the side, watching everything. He wouldn't join in the fight yet, not until he knew more, not until Peter failed._

_They were never to have a civil conversation again. The interactions went back to cocky mocking coming from the child and the bloodthirsty anger from the pirate Captain. The moments of normal rational thought for both of them, became less and less before completely vanishing altogether._

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K, that's the chapter. So sorry it took so long, seems that real life is really taking over and it's not only me either. I really hope that people aren't too busy to read this. Or I can wait until the summer cuz everyone will be less busy then, I hope. It's just funny because I got one review to my last chapter - I already answered that one.

DarkoBender, thank you again for reviewing.

Happy reading everyone!


	17. Chapter 17

"I have both hands again, Peter." Captain Hook said with a mocking smirk and Ana saw Jack wince at his words as though they hurt but she didn't know why.

"_You will die today Peter Pan!" The child scrambled back frantically managing at just the last moment to twist his body and fly up into the air. _

_Something had changed. The last few days had been brutal, with the Captain actively searching for him every minute of every day, so ready to fight, so ready to kill. It had always been akin to a game which Peter always won. He felt the rules of the Island as keenly as any child would feel the rules of surroundings made especially for him. But he wasn't winning anymore. _

_Running away now would be futile. He could fly, could evade the Captain for as long as possible but the avid animosity in the Pirate would always drive him on. Sooner or later they would have to fight. For the first time Peter felt a flash of fear. He knew that he hadn't been mistakes in his understanding and even though he wasn't afraid to die, he wanted to live. It was very important that he lived._

"_Come back down here right now Peter." The Captain called. "Come down here and fight me like a man!"_

"_I'm not a man, Codfish, remember?" Peter Pan smirked. "I'll come down when I feel like it." His cocky smirk betrayed nothing of his fear. He didn't know what was driving the Captain but he wished that it could have given him more time. More time to be more prepared for this inevitable fight._

_The Captain growled and launched for him and Peter flew to the other side of the ship to land in safety and wait till the Captain caught up with him. Perhaps if he tired him enough, maybe the pirate would get careless and bored with this dangerous game._

_What seemed like hours later, Peter was ready to rethink his strategies of action. The Captain wasn't tiring; in fact he looked like he was getting more and more energy with every passing minute that they fought._

"_I will kill you Peter Pan. Today is the day that everybody who cares to will remember as the day of your demise!" Peter shook his head mid-flight, amused. He had told the Captain something similar days ago. It just figured that the unoriginal pirate would simply parrot it back to him._

_He could hear the ticking of the crocodile in the distance coming closer towards them. He looked away, distracted for a moment, trying to judge how far away she was. When he looked back it was only to see the Captain bring his hand down swinging his arm, his sword coming strait at him and there was no time to move. _

_Without a thought Peter raised his own sword and swung. It only took a second but to the child each of the next moments in his life seemed to last a lifetime. He felt the vibrations of his sword as it hit flesh, the hungry smack of the alligator down below the ship, the heavy splash of the sword hitting the murky turbulent waters._

_He felt the Captain's enraged cry of pain but still did not dare to look. Instead, his eyes focused on a tiny speck of dirt on the deck in front of him as though his life depended on never looking away. _

_For all his words and bold fighting technique, his parents had strictly and in a young boy's mind, completely unfairly, banned him from all duels and other public fights. Sure there were the usual brawls between friends turned enemies and neighbors in the alleys but that had been different. There had been never been any real maiming, no large amounts of blood spilled. He had never seen the brutality, the real ugliness of far. It far such a harsh lesson to learn._

"_No… no…" The child whispered helplessly, trying to futilely deny the last few moment. He huddled down on the deck in a crouch, hugging his knees closer to himself for warmth that just wouldn't come. _

_In a split second everything had changed, the last vestiges of his childhood innocence stripped rudely away. He could actually feel the Island in his mind this time, desperately trying to repair the damage. This was the first time he welcomed the presence._

"_Help me." He whispered, wanting something, anything to take this pain, this horror, this guilt away. The Captain had escaped to his cabin to tend to his injury and no one of the crew on deck dared to touch the boy crouching and still in his place. _

_The rain began to fall then, cold slushy rain with the undercurrents of snow and winter on its heels. It covered the child and the ship layering the pirate ship in a blanket of pure white snow. The world had frozen. They were all just silhouettes, marionettes floating in a sea of nothingness. The island was still, respectful of its young master while the snow fell cleansingly on the world and when it was finally over and the snow melted away, Peter Pan flew._

"I'm glad." Jack said softly and for a minute Captain Hook looked startled and Jack wondered if he had ever asked his crew about what had happened out on his own deck after he had gone inside to clean his wound. If he had ever cared enough to find out how his enemy had reacted to delivering such a harsh wound.

"Why are you here?" Captain Sparrow asked. The question had so many double meaning. Why was he here on the island, why here on this beach? The Captain took the first option.

"The best I can figure, I am here to provide diversion and entertainment." He told the Captain of the Black Pearl. "We need to keep you interested and in balance and I have always provided that." He paused looking as though he was not sure about weather to go on or not. "Neverland wants your power Peter."

Captain Barbossa hadn't felt fully human in a long long while. The magical island had stripped him of so much, of his basic will when she had placed him under the spell that had stayed with him all of his life. He had learned to live with the burning irrational hatred that he felt for the young man in front of him. Fortunately, the spell didn't prevent him from making allies. The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Regardless weather you hated you enemy or not, if working together would be beneficial then that was what he would do and Captain Barbossa was glad that the hatred inside him hadn't prevented that option yet.

Jack nodded. He had felt her in his mind, trying to take away his control, to take over his mind. It was an explanation that he could readily believe.

"What do you want?" He asked Captain Barbossa. Barbossa shrugged.

"The enemy of my enemy is me friend, Captain Jack Sparrow. If you are gone, I will no longer be needed and I've grown somewhat… attached to this form of existence whatever it is. I want to help you fight her." The Captain said. He had come up with this sitting alone in his cavern bidding unwanted time. He had been too eager, he decided, too rash to see what had been right in front of him all this time. His one reason, his one purpose in life.

Jack Sparrow considered the options. Even trying to listen very hard in between the lines, Jack could hear nothing in the other pirate's voice that would tell him that he was no sincere. As though engraved on their DNA, Peter Pan and Captain Hook had to fight each other. It said nowhere that they couldn't cooperate and work together every once in a while.

"How?" That question came from Anamaria.

"I am not yet sure myself." The Captain confessed. "She offered me a deal, to get rid of Peter Pan and I accepted. She thinks that I am on her side. We can use that against her, I could strike when she least expects it. Mostly, I just wanted to warn you of her plans."

"What plans? What do you know?" Captain Jack wanted to know.

"Not much, not yet. I know that she has been working on her plans for years, for centuries. Long before you came into the picture Peter. She plans to fight mind to mind. Do you think you can beat her Peter Pan?" He asked. The question the answer to which everyone wanted to know.

"Yes." Captain Jack Sparrow said simply, unhesitatingly with his typical mad Jack Sparrow grin. It was all anyone needed to know.

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meowbooks- hey! I'm so glad ur enjoying it. as usual, i absolutely love your summeries. they are just wounderful! thank you - don't stopwriting them.

windwraith- Thank you, I'm so glad u liked that. I really liked the idea, I'm happy it came across as i wanted it to.

Happy reading everyone!


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